Millennium Projects Blast Off—Genomics at RIKEN, Part II
27 April 2007 (Volume 2 Issue 4)
Figure 1: The Center for Developmental Biology, one of RIKEN’s new life science centers this millennium, is at the core of Kobe’s plans to make the port city Asia’s medical hub.
Information gained from genomic analysis is crucial to developing long-awaited advances in medical treatments and the biotechnology industry. As competition in the post-genomic research era intensified, RIKEN ushered top-level researchers and energetic young scientists from around the country to its life science research centers established at the beginning of this millennium.
In 1997, when the UK surprised the world by producing the first cloned animal, Dolly the sheep, Japan’s Council for Science and Technology Policy compiled a report outlining the long-term direction of the nation’s life science research.
In 1999, a government panel recommended that Japan develop research centers in three important fields: genomic analysis to study polymorphism and diseases, developmental biology and plant biology. In the same year, five Japanese ministers made an unusual joint announcement on a basic guideline to nurture the fledgling biotechnology industry—a strategy that influenced other key areas of life science projects at RIKEN (see RIKEN RESEARCH 2 (3), p18). This occurred when genomic analysis research, notably the Human Genome Project, was progressing faster than originally predicted. The government chose RIKEN as the lead organization to implement these government plans.
In 2000, RIKEN first decided to set up two new life science research centers in 2000 at its Yokohama Institute—the home of the Genome Sciences Center since 1998. One was the Plant Science Center, which aims to investigate genomic functions in, and the metabolic systems of, model plants such as Arabidopsis and rice, in order to improve plant production in both volume and quality.
The other center, the SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism) Research Center (SRC), was established to realize tailor-made medicines based on genetic information. In 2002 while developing high-throughput technologies to effectively analyze SNPs (genetic variations), the center successfully identified a gene related to heart infarction, suggesting that genome-wide scanning of SNPs targeting disease cases is effective.
In 2001, the Research Center for Allergy and Immunology (RCAI) was added at Yokohama as part of the government’s plan to revive Japan’s stagnant economy and stimulate sustainable growth. The center is designed to unveil mechanisms of the complex immune system, which are little known despite a long history of immunology research in Japan. Specifically, the RCAI aims to develop effective vaccines and immune therapies and the capability to control adverse reactions in organ transplant patients.
Meanwhile, in the late 1990s RIKEN was planning to build the Center for Developmental Biology (CDB). Since its opening in 2000, the CDB’s researchers have been studying development and regeneration of animal cells as well as regenerative medicine for humans. The center has also been positioned as the core of Kobe city’s project to make it the center of the advanced medical industry (Fig. 1).
High-quality biological resources are essential to support life science research. In 2001, RIKEN established the BioResource Center (BRC) in Tsukuba to offer a variety of biological resources ranging from cells, genes, DNA and experimanetal animals to experimental plants and microbes. It allows RIKEN and other researchers to use these resources.
These five new centers bring the total number of RIKEN’s life science research centers to seven, including the Brain Science Institute in Wako. Before these centers opened, RIKEN scrambled to appoint top-level researchers as directors and chief scientists from universities and research institutes nationwide, but its persistence and passion to create a world-class research system moved many renowned scientists to relinquish their tenure positions and join RIKEN. RIKEN has thus established a robust framework for implementing Japan’s national post-genome research strategy, and is currently forging ahead aggressively to become the world’s center of excellence in this field.
