Division of Innovative Research and Development Advanced Research & Development Programs for Medical Innovation (AMED-CREST)

[Research and Development Objective] Immunological memory: Understanding, regulation and medical innovation

Immunological memory is an important host defense system that functions against infectious microorganisms, but is also closely implicated in the pathogenesis of various diseases, including cancer and allergy/autoimmune disease. Immunological memory is a potential target for the development of clinical methods to predict, prevent, and treat such diseases, so a better understanding of the mechanisms will be vital to lay the foundations for medical advances in the management of these diseases. Creation of new concepts of immunological memory will be expected by investigating the mechanism on the establishment of memory based on recognition of self and non-self, memory against pathogenic and symbiotic microorganisms, and pathogenic memory vs. beneficial memory.

Basic research on immunology to date has mostly been performed using mice and has focused on investigating short-term immune responses. The difference in the immune system between humans and animal models such as mice has been a barrier to the application of basic research achievements to the clinical setting. However, the importance of the understanding of the human immune system is rapidly becoming clear as a countermeasure against the COVID-19 pandemic, and basic research to understand human immunological memory is now seen as even more important. A better understanding of how immunological memory in humans is formed and maintained, how it is activated according to the environmental situation, and how it becomes weaker and disappears, will help us to develop new perspectives on the management of the numerous diseases in which the immune system is closely involved.

The goal of this R&D area is to create medical innovations that will contribute to predicting and regulating diseases like cancer, infectious disease, and allergy/autoimmune disease, through a hierarchical and multifaceted understanding of immunological memory in humans by applying advanced research technologies such as the recently developed single-cell/repertoire analyses and structural analyses using cryo-electron microscopy.

2022

Program Supervisor (PS)

 TAKEDA Kiyoshi

Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University

Program Officer (PO)

 KIYONO Hiroshi

Distinguished Professor, Future Medicine Education and Research Organization, Director, Synergy Institute for Futuristic Mucosal Vaccine Research and Development (cSIMVa), Chiba University

R&D Area Advisors

KABASHIMA Kenji

Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University

KAWAGUCHI Yasushi

Professor, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo

KUBO Masato

Professor, Research Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Tokyo University of Science

KUROSAKI Tomohiro

Team Leader, RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences Laboratory for Lymphocyte Differentiation

SHIBUYA Kazuko

Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tsukuba

CHIBA Kenji

Fellow, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation

YAMAMOTO Kazuhiko

Director, RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences