Dr. Toshihiko Shiroishi received his Ph.D. from the Department of Biology, Graduate School of Science, Tohoku University in 1981. He served as a Research Fellow in the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, and later as a Visiting Fellow at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in NIH. In 1984, he was appointed Assistant Professor in the Department of Cell Genetics, at the National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Japan. Since 1998, Toshihiko Shiroishi has been Professor of Mammalian Genetics Laboratory at the National Institute of Genetics, Mishima, Japan. He is also the Head of the Genetic Strain Research Center of the same institute and the Project Director of the Functional Genomics Group, RIKEN Genomics Sciences Center. His research interest is in the genetic control of pattern formation during mouse early embryogenesis. In particular, he is working on the anteroposterior axis formation in limb development using many mutant mice. Currently, he is also studying regulation of Sonic hedgehog (Shh) gene expression by long-range enhancers, which is associated by chromatin remodeling.