Rate My Professor Kagaku Azuma

Kagaku Azuma, MD, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Anatomy I, School of Medicine, at the University of Occupational and Environmental Health, Japan, where he served from 2015 to 2024. Earlier in his career, he was a lecturer at the Graduate School of Medicine, Gifu University, from 2010 to 2014. His academic work centers on anatomy within the medical sciences, with verified research interests encompassing morphological analysis of bone remodeling and osteoporosis, active mastication and its impacts on stress-related disorders and brain function, computational anatomy and three-dimensional model construction, fatty acid-binding protein (FABP) expression, and the structure and function of lymphatic tissue. Currently, he holds the position of Specially Appointed Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation at Heisei College of Health Sciences.

Azuma has produced extensive research on the physiological effects of mastication under stress conditions, including prenatal and chronic stress models. Notable publications include "Association between Mastication, the Hippocampus, and the HPA Axis: A Comprehensive Review" (2017, International Journal of Molecular Sciences), "Chronic Psychological Stress as a Risk Factor of Osteoporosis" (2015, Journal of UOEH), "Effects of Active Mastication on Chronic Stress-Induced Bone Loss in Mice" (2015, International Journal of Medical Sciences), "Maternal Active Mastication during Prenatal Stress Ameliorates Prenatal Stress-Induced Lower Bone Mass in Adult Mouse Offspring" (2017, International Journal of Medical Sciences), "Chewing Behavior Attenuates the Tumor Progression-Enhancing Effects of Psychological Stress in a Breast Cancer Model Mouse" (2021, Brain Sciences), and "Deletion of Wnt10a Is Implicated in Hippocampal Neurodegeneration in Mice" (2022, Biomedicines). As principal investigator, he has received multiple KAKENHI Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research, such as the project on mechanisms suppressing stress-induced developmental disorders via maternal chewing (2024–2026), influence of chewing on metastatic cancer (2020–2022), and chewing's role in breast cancer onset (2017–2019). His contributions appear in high-impact journals, addressing intersections of oral function, stress responses, cognitive health, and bone metabolism.