Institute for Academic Initiatives Symposium "Developing Future Drugs based on Academia Basic Research" held

On Thursday, March 27, Osaka University's Institute for Academic Initiatives Symposium " Developing Future Drugs based on Basic Academia Research " was held at Gakushi-kaikan in Tokyo. This symposium sponsored by the IAI's Division 6, "Division of Innovative Research for Drug Development" introduced their efforts in new drug and technology development for countering incurable diseases.

Following greetings from HIRANO Toshio (President, Osaka University and Director, Institute for Academic Initiative), NOGIMORI Masafumi (President, Astellas Pharma Inc.), and NISHIMURA Yasutoshi (Vice Minister, Cabinet Office), KANEDA Yasufumi (Dean, Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University) delivered a a special lecture, " Drug Development Research based on Virus Studies -- From Basics to Clinical Practice ."
Following his lecture, in Lectures, Part 1, on the theme of " Exploratory Drug Discovery Research for the Treatment of Incurable Diseases ," KANAI Yoshikatsu and YAMASHITA Toshihide (Professors, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University) and OBIKA Satoshi  (Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University) each delivered lectures.
In Lectures, Part 2, on the theme of " Technology Development Research for Supporting Drug Development ", TAKAGI Jun-ichi  (Professor, Institute for Protein Research, Osaka University), MORI Yuusuke (Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University), MIZUGUCHI Hiroyuki (Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University), TSUTSUMI Yasuo (Dean, Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University) each delivered lectures.
Following closing remarks by DOI Takefumi (Head, Group 6), a networking get-together was held. All in all, the symposium was a success with some 150 people in attendance.

President Hirano	Chairman Nogimori	Vice Minister Nishimura
Professor Kaneda	Professor Kanai	Professor Yamashita
Professor Obika	Professor Takagi	Professor Mori
Professor Mizuguchi	Professor Tsutsumi	Professor Doi