Haruo Sugiyama graduated from Osaka University School of Medicine (M.D.) and received Ph.D. degree from Osaka University in tumor virology (1979). Then, he moved to internal medicine and specialized in immunology and hematology. He was appointed Professor, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine in 1995 and he is now appointed Specially Appointed Professor, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine.

He invented a clinical test that made it possible to detect only one leukemic cell in 100,000 normal peripheral blood cells in 1994. This test becomes an essential test to treat acute leukemia and myelodysplastic syndrome, is covered by national health insurance, and is exported to EU. By this research achievements, he was honored by 2011 Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Fund Prize.

Furthermore, he discovered that WT1 protein is a ubiquitous tumor-associated antigen for leukemia and almost all types of solid tumors, and he invented WT1 cancer vaccine. National Cancer Institute, USA evaluated 75 popular tumor-associated antigens (TAAs) for the clinical utility and ranked WT1 antigen as a top among 75 TAAs (2009). He started for the first time (First – in – Man) a phaseⅠclinical study of WT1 cancer vaccine in 2002. Until today, over 850 patients with AML, CML, MDS, multiple myeloma, glioblastoma multiforme, lung, breast, pancreatic, colon, gynecological, thyroid, renal cancers, malignant mesothelioma, or childhood malignancies such as rhabdomyosarcoma were WT1-vaccinated and had sufficient clinical effect without significant adverse effect. Global clinical studies of WT1 cancer vaccine are being performed by pharmaceutical company for the governmental approval of the medicine. Furthermore, more than 10,000 patients with advanced cancer have been receiving WT1 peptide-pulsed or WT1 mRNA-electroporated dendritic cell therapies. He also has a strong interest in the use of this vaccine as cancer prophylactic vaccine.