Center Director: Kazuo Kishi (Professor, School of Medicine)
Main Campus: Shinanomachi
Center Overview
In recent years, it has become increasingly difficult for individual, specialized academic fields to address the challenges facing science and technology. To support the rapidly advancing field of medicine in particular, collaboration between medical, engineering, and pharmaceutical sciences to solve problems is essential for the future development of medical technology. Keio University is a comprehensive university with a School of Medicine, Faculty of Science and Technology, and Faculty of Pharmacy. While collaborative projects have been promoted within the university, they have been limited to individual joint research efforts. For this reason, the Keio Medical and Pharmaceutical Science and Engineering Commons (MPEC) aims to build a foundation for interdisciplinary research with a system that spontaneously generates collaboration between medical, engineering, and pharmaceutical sciences.
Keywords and Main Research Themes
Medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration, regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, neuroscience and rehabilitation, biomechanics and computational engineering, bio-drug devices, biomedical imaging, regulatory science
FY2018 Business Plan
■Activities continuing from the previous fiscal year: background, rationale, and goals
Promotion of inter-faculty research through medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration. We will continue to engage in joint research through medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration under the common goal of human care medicine.
Holding regular medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration working groups. As in FY2017, we will hold regular MPEC meetings to work on joint research, applications for research funding, and the planning and management of the Incubation Lounge. In particular, we will strengthen our collaboration with the TR Division of the Center for Clinical Research, which began in FY2017, and consider mechanisms to vitalize medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration within the university.
■New activity goals and content for FY2018, and background for implementation
Promotion of interdisciplinary research through medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration. At regular meetings, we will consider applying for new research grants and explore mechanisms for a continuous medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration platform within the university.
Actions to vitalize medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration. We will strengthen our collaboration with the TR Division of the Center for Clinical Research, which began in FY2017, and consider a concrete action plan to vitalize medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration within the university.
FY2018 Business Report
■Implementation details for the fiscal year's business plan, research outcomes, and degree of achievement
Promotion of interdisciplinary research through medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration. We have conducted joint research through medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration under the common goal of human care medicine. Specifically, researchers from medical, engineering, and pharmaceutical sciences are collaborating to promote the AMED Regenerative Medicine Hub Network Project. In addition, lecturers from the School of Medicine, Faculty of Science and Technology, and Faculty of Pharmacy gather to regularly host symposia to promote interdisciplinary research in these fields. At each symposium, one lecturer is invited from each of the three faculties.
Holding regular medical-engineering-pharmaceutical working groups. We held regular MPEC meetings once every two to three months to discuss inter-faculty joint research, applications for research funding, and mechanisms for medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration. In FY2018, we particularly collaborated with the TR Division of the Center for Clinical Research to discuss mechanisms for vitalizing this collaboration within the university. Furthermore, we considered collaboration with JKiC (JSR-Keio University Medical and Chemical Innovation Center).
■Number of published papers (count and names of major journals), number of conference presentations (domestic and international), and achievements in social contribution, such as events (date, location)
Relocation and operation of the medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration platform site. We operate http://keio-mpec.umin.jp. We disseminate information about MPEC activities through the above website.
Holding medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration symposia. Held once every four months, rotating among the three campuses of the School of Medicine, Faculty of Science and Technology, and Faculty of Pharmacy, to incubate inter-faculty joint research.
18th Incubation Lounge (July 17, 2018, Shinanomachi Campus, JKiC 1st Floor Conference Room) http://keio-mpec.umin.jp/event/20180717.html
19th Incubation Lounge (November 16, 2018, Hiyoshi Campus, Raiosha 2nd Floor, Large Conference Room) http://keio-mpec.umin.jp/event/20181116.html
20th Incubation Lounge (March 6, 2019, Shiba-Kyoritsu Campus, Venue TBD)
■Notable achievements through the center's activities
Through the "Medical-Engineering-Pharmaceutical Collaboration Symposium" hosted by this Keio Advanced Research Center, information exchange among researchers from the School of Medicine, Faculty of Science and Technology, and Faculty of Pharmacy has been vitalized, and inter-faculty joint research projects have been initiated. Some research projects have succeeded in acquiring external funding, leading to the development of new joint research. The "Medical-Engineering-Pharmaceutical Collaboration Symposium" will be held for the 20th time in March 2019, and to date, nearly 60 researchers from the three faculties have given lectures. Therefore, we have compiled a list of these speakers and launched a mailing list to promote medical-engineering-pharmaceutical collaboration. This mailing list is used for cross-faculty information sharing among researchers within the university.
Project Members
Principal Investigator
Kazuo Kishi
ProfessorPlastic and Reconstructive Surgery, School of MedicineNoriko Aramaki
Senior Assistant Professor (Intra-faculty)Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, School of Medicine