[Special Feature: 10th Anniversary of the Faculty of Pharmacy] Expectations for the Faculty of Pharmacy—From an External Research Institution

2018/10/05

Congratulations on the 10th anniversary of the Faculty of Pharmacy. As someone who was once affiliated with Keio University and is currently at an external research institution, I would like to express my expectations for the future of the Faculty of Pharmacy.

In 2008, when the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences were established, I was engaged in immunology education and research at the School of Medicine's Department of Microbiology and Immunology. I remember feeling that Keio University's health and medical care fields had become very substantial with the establishment of the Faculty of Nursing and Medical Care in 2001, followed by the birth of the Faculty of Pharmacy. At the same time, since I had previously lectured at Kyoritsu University of Pharmacy several times as a part-time lecturer, I also remember feeling an increased sense of familiarity with the Shiba-Kyoritsu Campus.

One year later, in April 2009, Junichi Furusawa, who had completed his Master's program at the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, entered the Doctoral Programs of the Graduate School of Medicine and joined my laboratory. He was one of the few students who entered the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Kyoritsu University of Pharmacy and graduated from the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences at Keio University. At that time, my laboratory had just discovered a new type of lymphocyte we named natural helper cells (now called Group 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2)), and it was a period when the scope of our research was expanding. Utilizing the biochemical knowledge and techniques he had cultivated, he conducted detailed research on the signals required for the proliferation and activation of ILC2, published an excellent paper in a traditional immunology journal, and obtained his Ph.D. in Medicine. Since students who studied in the Faculty of Pharmacy possess more knowledge of medical sciences than students from other faculties, I felt that graduates of the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences would be a great asset to the Graduate School of Medicine in the future.

In April 2012, I had the opportunity to open a laboratory at RIKEN, so the group involved in ILC2 research moved to the Research Center for Allergy and Immunology (RCAI) in Yokohama. Consequently, the students involved in ILC2 research also moved to Yokohama with me. Setting up a new laboratory took a certain amount of time, and it was a challenge not only for the staff but also for the students. In April 2013, the RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences (IMS) was established as a new research center integrating RCAI and the Center for Genomic Medicine. I resigned from Keio and completely transferred to RIKEN to take care of IMS as the Director (initially as Acting Director). I thought I might become distant from the Faculty of Pharmacy as a result, but subsequently, Koji Hase and Makoto Arita, who were active at RIKEN, were appointed as professors of Biochemistry and Metabolic Physiology and Chemistry at the Faculty of Pharmacy, and the exchange between RIKEN and the Keio Faculty of Pharmacy actually became more active. For IMS, which promotes research in life sciences, especially in the field of medical sciences, collaboration with the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences is important, and I look forward to continued cooperation.

RIKEN has a 100-year history as a comprehensive research institute for natural sciences, conducting research in various fields such as physics, chemistry, mathematical sciences, engineering, biology, medical sciences, informatics, and computational science. There are many researchers in the biological and medical sciences fields, and cutting-edge research is conducted in a wide range of areas including neuroscience, immunology, embryology, biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, and plant science. By collaborating closely with the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, I sincerely hope that many students will participate in these research activities.

Furthermore, RIKEN has a program called the Program for Drug Discovery and Medical Technology Platforms. This program promotes research to create new substances such as low-molecular-weight compounds and antibodies that are candidates for pharmaceuticals, targeting drug discovery targets (disease-related proteins) identified from various basic disease research conducted at RIKEN's research centers and universities. Furthermore, it supports drug discovery and medical technology projects, which are translational research at the non-clinical research stage. The final goal is to transfer these to companies and medical institutions at the appropriate stage. This program also participates in the Drug Discovery Support Network project promoted by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED). There are various areas here where human resources from the pharmaceutical sciences can play an active role.

As someone in the environment of Research Centers and Institutes, I sincerely hope that the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences will produce research talent. Currently, there are outcries regarding the decline of Japan's research capabilities. While there are various discussions regarding the reasons, I feel it is serious that the number of students advancing to Master's and Doctoral Programs has been on a downward trend at many universities recently. It is the young people entering the path of research who will support the science of the next generation. Without increasing this number, there is no future for Japanese research. While vocational education is important, I expect that many young people aiming to become researchers who will lead the future of life sciences will emerge from Keio University's Faculty of Pharmacy and Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

I sincerely pray that the Faculty of Pharmacy and the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences will continue to develop further toward the next 10 years and the 100-year milestone in 2030, counting from the establishment of the Kyoritsu Women's Pharmaceutical Professional School.