The RIKEN Science Lectures
The most recent round of RIKEN’s annual public lecture series focused on the diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases at a time of renewed concern about global pandemics.
The RIKEN Science Lectures are a series of annual events bringing together pioneering researchers at RIKEN and leading scientists in related fields to share their findings with the public. The latest set of lectures took place on 5 December 2009 at the Marunouchi Building Hall in central Tokyo, in what was the 31st year of the event. The program was dominated by the theme of infectious diseases and was the second in a four-year series focusing on the role of RIKEN, as Japan’s largest research institute devoted to the natural sciences, in tackling problems of health, environment and energy. The 2009 lecture series occurred against a backdrop of fear about a global H1N1 influenza pandemic, further emphasizing the importance of research on treatments for infectious diseases.
RIKEN’s efforts in the area of infectious diseases are concentrated on a powerful research network connecting ten universities and research institutions in Japan to 12 collaborative research centers spread across eight countries in Asia and Africa. Organized through the Program of Founding Research Centers for Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases, an initiative of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT), the network answers a pressing need for on-site research toward advances in diagnosis and treatment. RIKEN’s contribution is coordinated by the RIKEN Center of Research Network for Infectious Diseases (CRNID), which oversees activities of the research centers and offers support through the hosting of symposia and sharing of information.
In the opening lecture of the series, Yoshiyuki Nagai, director of the CRNID and a world-leading specialist in virology, emphasized that Japan cannot tackle the challenge of infectious diseases in isolation. “We can’t talk about the security of Japan without talking about the security of Asia, and of the world,” he said, pointing out that while infectious diseases heed no national borders, borders do exist in research on infectious diseases.
Taking his cue from this observation, Akira Suzuki of the Tohoku University School of Medicine introduced one of the key international collaborations in the CRNID-supported network. Connecting researchers in Japan to on-site facilities and hospitals in the Philippines, the TOHOKU-RITM Collaborating Research Center on Emerging and Reemerging Diseases has played a pivotal role in clarifying the nature of many diseases afflicting the region (see box).
A long with international collaboration, development of technology for diagnosis is also essential in responding to today’s global pandemics. In his lecture, RIKEN Omics Science Center (OSC) Director Yoshihide Hayashizaki explained how his center’s trademark SmartAmp (Smart Amplification Process) technology contributes to this response. SmartAmp reduces single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) analysis time to just half an hour, enabling fast, affordable on-site care testing for a range of different diseases, including the new influenza (H1N1) virus.
In the final lecture, Takehiko Sasazuki, president emeritus of the International Medical Center of Japan, discussed the link between infectious diseases and cancer, one which underlies 10% to 30% of all cancer cases worldwide. “DNA is remarkably stable, but if it was perfectly stable there would be no evolution, and we would not be here today,” he said, noting that this same instability is also what gives rise to cancer. As the link connecting infectious diseases and cancer, he pointed to extremely complex genetic pathways, whose cancer-causing mechanisms science has yet to fully clarify.
Although many questions regarding the treatment of infectious disease worldwide remain unanswered, the 2009 RIKEN Science Lectures provided a broad overview of this field, showcasing the research that will ensure our society remains safe and secure in the years to come.
Chasing the Forgotten Killer
Akira Suzuki
UNICEF and the WHO describe pneumonia as the “forgotten killer of children”, because while this disease kills more children than any other, little attention is paid to it. At the TOHOKU-RITM Collaborating Research Center on Emerging and Reemerging Diseases, a joint collaboration between the Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan and the Research Institute of Tropical Medicine (RITM) in the Philippines, we are focusing significant efforts toward understanding this disease. In May, 2008, in cooperation with local hospitals, we initiated a study to determine the causes of death among children with severe pneumonia on the island of Leyte.
The conditions in hospitals in Tacloban, the city where we are stationed for this study, are very different from those in Japan. In emergency rooms, there is none of the equipment one would expect to find. Most patients require mechanical ventilation for respiratory support, but ventilators are not available, and equipment that is available is left unused for lack of maintenance funds.
Our study set out to investigate conditions in this region, while also training local staff and establishing a system for on-site diagnosis and treatment. Of the total 800 cases we enrolled, 8% of patients died during hospitalization, a mortality rate higher than in other regions of the country. In our study, we identified rhinoviruses and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) as the pathogens responsible for most severe cases of pneumonia in children. While we did not detect any sign of the new influenza virus (H1N1), we are currently working with local health authorities to monitor for and respond to this strain if and when it arrives.
Given the global nature of today’s health problems, we are confident that our research in the Philippines will bring much-needed improvements not only to the lives of local people, but also to the people of Japan, and of the world.
Akira Suzuki is an Assistant Professor at the Tohoku University School of Medicine
