46 members of the French national training course of IHEST visited IMSUT

　On April 4, 2017 IMSUT welcomed 46 members of the French naional training course organized by Institut des Hautes Etudes pour la Science et la Technologie (IHEST) for one week in Japan.

　IHEST is a public administrative institution whose aim is to build a collective culture of research and innovation. To do this, it examines the purpose of scientific and technological research, as well as its economic, social and policy aspects, and then disseminates its analyses to inform opinion and decision-making. A wide variety of members such as researchers, businessmen and government officials at executive administrative levels participated in this year’s course titled “Common goods in Japan today, forms of innovation”. The objective of the program was to observe Japan’s present situation regarding innovation, research, collaboration between industry and academia desaster prevention as well as Japnese culture ? the human scientific side of Japan.

The visit of IMSUT began with lunch under early cherry blossoms or in the Medical Science Museum, followed by a general presentation by the IMSUT Dean, Prof. Yoshinori Murakami. Then the group visited several research facilities. Dr. Rui Yamaguchi, associate professor of the Laboratory of DNA Information Analysis, Human Genome Center presented the human genome research in the Super Computer Facility Room, Dr. Masaaki Oyama, associated professor of Medical Proteomics Laboratory talked about research using mass spectrometry and Dr. Koichiro Yuji, project associate professor of the Project Division of International Advanced Medical Research explained about DNA storage, serum and plasma storage, and tissue storage in BioBank Japan. In each facility participants actively asked questions and they showed great interest in the activities of IMSUT.

This visit provided an overview of IMSUT’s medical scientific research to French executives concerned with academia and science. The development of various exchanges between IMSUT and France holds great promise.