Global-COE Projects

Pulsed power is instantaneous ultra-high power. By controlling and utilizing it in a narrow space and an instantaneous time, phenomena and reactions that are not attained by conventional and ordinary methods can be achieved. Innovating this new field, the 21st Century COE program, "Promotion and application of pulsed power science," has been developed, globally comprising the elucidation and the application of transitional, non-linear, and non-equilibrium phenomena as the pulsed power. In association with research achievement on various phenomena that are produced in solids, liquids, gases, and biological organisms by the pulsed power, research target and basis have widened up to such fields as environmental preservation, resource recycling, foodstuffs, medicine, nanotechnology, extreme condition science and so forth. It implies that the pulsed power engineering is really promising for extremely broadened industrial applications and innovations.
The global center of excellence (COE) program on pulsed power engineering at Kumamoto University has started in 2008. The funding support by the Japanese government is provided for establishing education and research centers that perform at the apex of global excellence to elevate the international competitiveness of the Japanese universities. On the basis of successful achievements in the 21st century COE program, this global COE program is being developed. A main objective is to promote an international initiative, to build up a global leadership center for the pulsed power engineering, to create talented young leaders, to set up new industries, and to result in systematization of the pulsed power engineering. For this purpose, it is planned to develop the pulsed power engineering, by strengthening the three international initiatives of the high-pressure shock compression field, the bioelectrics field, and the load reduction field on the environment and creating new industrial fields that make good use of consortia of industry, academia and government. In addition, it has been settled to start a distinctive education program (“IMPACT” Program), and to produce talented leaders with whom a broad way of understanding that surmounts the borders of specialties exists, and who have a rich creativity and global view as the foundation of pulsed power science and engineering

Profile
Professor of Graduate School of Science and Technology, Kumamoto University, Project leader of the global Center-of-Excellence program on pulsed power engineering, IEEE Fellow, Peter Haas Award for research and education of pulsed power, Major Educational Innovation Award by IEEE, Award of Engineering Education by Japanese Society of Engineering Education, Germeshausen Award for research of repetitive pulsed power and its application to bioelectrics.


It was insufferably hot when Tetsuya Taga first landed at Kumamoto airport in August 2000 to join Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics (IMEG). Time flies, and now eight summers have passed since he closed his lab in Tokyo Medical and Dental University which he had managed as a fully tenure professor for 4 years, and opened the new one in IMEG. This institute was established in that millennium year to promote the integration of medical sciences from the viewpoint of developmental biology, and has been where Tetsuya Taga has assumed directorship, from October 2001 to March 2006, and from April 2008 to present.
　He has been working on how cytokines regulate the immune system, and has found new signal transduction pathways, a discovery that has contributed to the understanding of how this host defence system is controlled. In the year 2000, he received Citation Laureate Award that recognized him as one of the top ten Japanese scientists authoring multiple and influential papers in the period between 1981-1998. Because some of the cytokines he studied have neurotrophic activities, he expanded his interest to the nervous system. His current research in IMEG is aimed st elucidating the mechanisms by which multicellular organs, in particular the central nervous system and the hematopoietic system, are developed. His projects are focused on molecular regulation of (1)neural stem cells and (2) hematopoietic stem cells, in view of cell-external cues such as cytokines, as well as cell-intrinsic programs including chromatin modification. The principal objective of the project #1 is to advance our understanding of stem cells in the central nervous system (CNS), with specific regard to mechanisms regulating differentiation to distinct cellular fates and maintenance of the stem cell state. Project #2 is aimed at elucidating how the hematopoistic system is established in the fetus. A particular focus is placed on the aorta-gonad-mesonephros (AGM) region where definitive hematopoiesis is first observed.
　In 2002, a research and educational program called the Cell Fate Regulation Research and Education Unit was proposed by ten professors who were affiliated with IMEG, the Faculty of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and the Center for Animal Resources and Development in Kumamoto University. The Unit was selected as a 21st Century Center of Excellence (COE) by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). This program, led by Tetsuya Taga as program leader, was designed to promote research into cell fate regulation, which is a fundamental process governing organogenesis. It also seeks to encourage young scientists in a wide variety of related research fields at Kumamoto University by providing a multidisciplinary and interactive research environment. These sorts of research and educational activities, unique to this COE program, have been very much recognized by MEXT.
In 2007, MEXT launched a new initiative, the Global COE Program, to provide funding to establish education and research centers that perform at the apex of global excellence, and to enhance the international competitiveness of Japanese universities. A new five-year program under the same title, “Cell Fate Regulation Research and Education Unit,” again with Tetsuya Taga as the program leader, aims to encourage young scientists to become internationally competitive independent scientists. This program has again been selected as one of the 13 premier programs across Japan in the field of life sciences.
Summer is coming around again. It’s getting steamy and hot in Kumamoto, not only because of global warming, but also because to the activities of the Global COE program and the energy generated by the gathering of so many brilliant young scientists.

Profile
Program leader of the Global Center-of-Excellence (FY2007-) and 21st Century Center-of-Excellence (FY2002-2006) on Cell Fate Regulation Research and Education Unit, The Japanese Society of Immunology Award (1999), Citation Laureate Award (2000).


Today, HIV infection poses an imminent and frightening threat to public health, and has had a devastating impact worldwide since its ominous emergence in 1981. Of note, HIV prevalence is on the rise in Japan. Despite the ongoing growth of the epidemic, national funding for HIV/AIDS research is considerably limited in Japan, and the number of Japanese scientists and clinicians focusing on AIDS has remained low for over 20 years. To assume our share of responsibility, there is an urgent need to promote international collaboration and to expand training opportunities for young individuals to become leaders in the area of HIV/AIDS research.
Founded as the first and only academic institute in Japan devoted to HIV/AIDS research, Kumamoto University Center for AIDS Research is committed to fostering a dynamic program to train young researchers specializing in HIV and AIDS. Utilizing and expanding our experience and commitment in “the Initiative for Attractive Educational Programs in Graduate School: the AIDS Research Training Program”, the proposed global COE (gCOE) program will offer a rigorous educational “AIDS Research Expert Training Program (AREP)” for graduate students, young physicians, and junior researchers. Our main strategies in AREP are (i) globalizing the laboratories, both scientifically and linguistically, (ii) furthering existing collaborative research projects, and (iii) creating new projects with designated international liaison laboratories (ILL). We will realize these strategies by employing English-speaking faculty members to improve gCOE trainees’ English skills, participating in international conference, and opening joint research opportunities to the trainees. We must commit ourselves to creating an environment for global communication, cooperation, and competition, which should lead to the production of the next generation of internationally competitive leaders in AIDS medicine.
Although the backbone of the research enterprise is individual activity, many areas of HIV/AIDS research require teams of interdisciplinary scientists working at the intersection of virology, immunology, chemistry, molecular and structural biology, pharmacology, clinical medicine, and ather fields. In the proposed gCOE program, we will aggressively pursue a number of interdisciplinary projects by nurturing domestic and international collaborations, and by attracting and training motivated and talented young individuals from across Japan.

Profile
Dr. Mitsuya is directly responsible for demonstrating the antiviral activity of the first three drugs (AZT, ddI, and ddC) widely used in the treatment of AIDS. Dr. Mitsuya is a leading researcher in the development of AIDS therapeutics and the study of HIV resistance, he is a major figure in the development of the next generation of anti-HIV drugs including darunavir. He has received various awards, including NIH Director's Award (1992), First NIH World AIDS Day Award (2006), Medal with Purple Ribbon from Japan (2007), NCI HIV/AIDS Research Excellence Award (2007), Keio Medical Science Prize (2007) and Takamine Sankyo Memorial Award (2007). Dr. Mitsuya serves as Program Director of the Global Center-of-Excellence Project (FY2008-): Global Education and Reserch Center Aiming at the Control of AIDS.