News Releases & Research Results AMED and NIAID implemented the first international collaboration call and 13 R&D projects were awarded to grant

Point

• In collaboration with the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIAID/NIH), the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) implemented a collaborative international research call and, following an international joint review, selected thirteen highly meritorious applications for funding.
• It was the first case for AMED to participate in an international joint review in English.
• AMED highly promotes international collaborative research activities.

The Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED), who’s President is Dr. Makoto Suematu and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, who’s Director is Dr. Anthony Fauci, recently identified thirteen outstanding R&D projects submitted in response to a call for international collaborative applications focused on infectious diseases and immunology research.  This call was issued as part of the U.S.-Japan Cooperative Medical Sciences Program and provided a particular opportunity for early-career and female investigators.  Nearly 30 applications were submitted and reviewed by joint Japanese-U.S. panels of expert scientists.  It was the first case for AMED to conduct the entire process of a joint research call and review in English. The result of the call was announced at the 19th International Conference on Emerging Infectious Diseases in the Pacific Rim, which was held jointly by NIH and AMED in collaboration with the local host agency, the International Vaccine Institute (IVI), from February 7th to 10th, 2017, in Seoul, Korea.

This joint research call was implemented between AMED and NIAID to enhance especially, the research capacity of female and early-career investigators, through international collaborative research on infectious diseases spreading in Asian countries, under the U.S. - Japan Cooperative Medical Sciences Program. Joint research applications were prepared and submitted in English with an evaluation criteria being the inclusion of early-stage and/or female researchers in any of the following team combinations; Japan - U.S., Japan - U.S. - Asia, or U.S. - Asia. An international non-governmental organization located in the United States, CRDF Global, helped manage the whole process of the joint call.

To review bacterial, parasitic and virus disease applications three peer review panels were constituted with equal membership of U.S. and Japanese scientists. These panels reviewed 29 applications and identified 13 that were highly meritorious. The three review panels; focused on Viral, Bacterial and Parasitic Diseases, conducted their reviews in English, spending 2 to 3 hours on the review of each application. Utilizing the results of the review, AMED, NIAID and CRDF Global decided to fund all 13 of the highly meritorious applications.  (See the attached list of the awarded projects) and AMED concluded contracts with 10 Japanese sub teams among 13 awarded projects.

Since there is a 14 hour time difference between the United States (Eastern Standard Time) and Japan, and the reviewers were scattered nationwide within the United States, a web and tele-conference system was utilized for implementing the review panels.

This project is a joint research program that AMED and NIH are conducting for the first time after concluding a memorandum of understanding on cooperation in 2015 and it is the first case of an international joint call and joint review in English for AMED. AMED highly promotes the implementation of international collaborative research, and will put more effort into strengthening collaborative research calls and peer review in English.

• List of Awardees

Project	Principal Investigator	Affiliation	Country
Automated detection of outbreaks of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria in Japan	Yahara, Koji	National Institute of Infectious Diseases	Japan
	Stelling, John	Brigham and Women's Hospital	U.S.
Dried Blood Spots for Cholera Serosurveillance	Diep, Tai The	Pasteur Institute, Ho Chi Min City	Vietnam
	Leung, Daniel	University of Utah	U.S.
Engineering bacteriocins for therapeutic development targeting pathogenic Enterobacteriaceae	Dirphat, Pornphan	Mahidol University	Thailand
	Dziejman, Michelle	University of Rochester Medical Center	U.S.
Molecular Surveillance of Ceftazidime (CAZ) Resistance in Melioidosis	Nakajima, Chie	Hokkaido University	Japan
	Tuanyok, Apichai	University of Florida	U.S.
Defined antigens for a diagnostic antigen detection test of visceral leishmaniasis	Goto, Yasuyuki	University of Tokyo	Japan
	Duthie, Malcolm	Infectious Disease Research Institute	U.S.
Discovery and molecular understanding of virulence-associated genetic markers of amebiasis	Tsukui, Kumiko	National Institute of Infectious Diseases	Japan
	Marie, Chelsea	University of Virginia	U.S.
Establishment of a novel in vitro system to assess Plasmodium vivax hypnozoites and its application for the metabolomic and pharmacological analysis	Kaneko, Osamu	Nagasaki University	Japan
	Patrapuvich, Rapatbhorn	Mahidol University	Thailand
	Rathod, Pradipsinh	University of Washington	U.S.
Evaluation of P. falciparum/P. vivax protein microarray for detection of subclinical P. falciparum infection and exposure in Myanmar.	Han, Kay Thwe	Department of Medical Research, Ministry of Health	Myanmar
	Nyunt, Myaing	University of Maryland, Baltimore	U.S.
In vitro and in vivo characterization of host factor candidates targeting liver-stage malaria	Yamamoto, Masahiro	Osaka University	Japan
	Jacobs-Lorena, Marcelo	Johns Hopkins University	U.S.
Investigate the gain of immune function after hepatitis C virus eradication from patients	Kanda, Tatsuo	Chiba University	Japan
	Ray, Ranjit	Saint. Louis University	U.S.
Molecular characterization of interferon- resistant HIV-1 using novel imaging techniques	Shioda, Tatsuo	Osaka University	Japan
	Hope, Thomas	Northwestern University	U.S.
Molecular mechanisms by which HIV-1 acquires resistance to second-generation integrase strand transfer inhibitors	Hachiya, Atsuko	National Hospital Organization Nagoya Center	Japan
	Kirby, Karen	University of Missouri	U.S.
The balancing act: hepatic innate immune defense and viral evasion.	Aly Ibarhim, Hussein	National Institute of Infectious Diseases	Japan
	Saito, Takeshi	University of Southern California	U.S.