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

[Research and Development Objective] Clarification of the mechanism of individual’s functional impairment over the entire life course

With the rapid progress of aging in industrialized countries including Japan, extending healthy longevity is an issue of global importance. While treating individual diseases and improving quality of life (QOL) are important for extending healthy longevity, preemptively suppressing functional impairment at the individual level is expected to be an effective approach.

From birth to death, organisms are constantly subject to various stimuli from the environment. It is thought that the long-term effects of these external factors and internal genetic factors cause individual functional impairment. In understanding and controlling this complex phenomenon, there are limits to the conventional research approaches focusing separately on diseases and on tissues and organs. Instead, a strategic approach is necessary.

Therefore, for this R&D objective, we aim to undertake innovative interdisciplinary research across wide-ranging fields such as development, immunity, stem cells, protein quality control mechanisms, and epigenetics, over the entire life course from birth to maturity, aging, and heredity. We expect this research to identify the mechanisms involved for evaluating and controlling individual functional impairment, and to create the seeds for basic technologies.

2017

Program Supervisor (PS)

NISHIDA Eisuke

Director, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research

Program Officer (PO)

HARA Eiji

Professor, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University

R&D Area Advisors

ICHIJO Hidenori

Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Tokyo

IMAI Toshio

President & CEO, KAN Research Institute, Inc.

KURANAGA Erina

Professor, Graduate School of Life Sciences, Tohoku University

TAKEDA Kiyoshi

Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University

MATSUZAKI Fumio

Team Leader, RIKEN Center for Biosystems Dynamics Research

YANAGITA Motoko

Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University

YOKOTE Koutaro

Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, Chiba University