Dean

Graduate School of Medicine

KUMANOGOH Atsushi

Under one roof

Since its establishment in April 2014, the Center of Medical Innovation and Translational Research has been one of the leading research centers for the industry-academia collaboration in Japan. Its proposed mandate is “the development of cutting-edge medical care and promotion of open innovation that is unparalleled in the world ‘under one roof’ through the collaboration of industry, academia, and government institutions.” Under this mission, we are currently working on the research and development of new next-generation drugs and innovative medical technologies in collaboration with companies and research institutions in a variety of fields.

The medical community in Japan is currently facing tremendous challenges in both basic and clinical medicine. In addition to the most recent issues, we must consider the needs of medicine in a rapidly changing society, how to disseminate the results of our research to the medical community, particularly, in the post-corona era, and how to develop next generation research strategies without interruption. This is a time when we need to look toward the future.

In academia, it is important to aim for research that focuses on the essence and true nature of life phenomena, and for clinical and translational research to develop into new basic research that leads to the true elucidation of etiology and pathology. However, in this process, it is also important to support excellent seeds that can be returned to society from an early stage and to develop them into the next generation of innovation together with industry. We believe that the role of the Center of Medical Innovation and Translational Research will continue to increase in order for Osaka University to continue to demonstrate its presence in Japan and abroad. In the future, the Center of Medical Innovation and Translational Research will continue to promote, develop, and implement projects with social implications in the field of advanced medicine through bridging research on innovative ideas, licensing out to companies, and early realization of industrialization through close industry-university collaboration.

Director

Center of Medical Innovation and Translational Research

FUJIMOTO Manabu

An integrated research center for collaboration among industry, academia, and government

In 2002, the Graduate School of Medicine of Osaka University established the Medical Center for Translational Research at Osaka University Hospital, and has become one of the first institutions in Japan to establish a system to develop basic technologies (from on and off campus) into advanced medical care. The next innovation expected was the preparation of the “soil” for promising basic technologies to flourish. As a key way to achieve this, the establishment of the Center of Medical Innovation and Translational Research (CoMIT) was proposed with the purpose of enhancing collaboration between industry and academia.

In the course of fleshing out the details, this proposal was selected for the Subsidy for Advanced Technology Demonstration and Evaluation Facility Development (a project for construction of “Centers to Facilitate the Development of Technology”) by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. CoMIT was then established in April 2014 as the culmination of leadership by 3 successive deans of the Graduate School of Medicine and hard work by numerous faculty members.

CoMIT has a highly unique characteristics, where companies, universities, and researchers from different fields and areas gather “Under One Roof” of the same facility for development and practical application of integrative, cross-cutting, advanced medical technology in immunity, regeneration, and other areas. The number of projects promoted at CoMIT and participating companies is actually increasing every year, further enriching research to deliver multiple achievements. I hope CoMIT will continue to play an active role in bridging basic research to clinical research and social implementation as a center to create and deliver new innovations by integrating various areas of knowledge.