The All Hokkaido Translational Research Project for Advanced Medicine
To Inspire the Future of Medicine

From Creating Infrastructure to Self-supporting in Translational Research — The Challenges of New Fields of Endeavor

The first stage of the Translational Research Project to further the practical application of basic research findings related to the life sciences through clinical research and trials was launched as the“Coordination, Support and Training Program for Translational Research” supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in 2007. Followed by the initial success of the first stage of the project, we are now three years into the second stage of the project, the MEXT “Translational Research Network Program” which was initiated in April 2012.
Currently, the Hokkaido Organization for Translational Research (HTR) is actively working to accomplish the objects of the second stage of the program and making steady progress. The objectives include conducting at least three separate clinical trials based on the initiative of medical doctors, establishing organizational pathways for enabling R&D efforts, strengthening the frameworks that support seeds research, and strengthening international competitiveness and independence through greater investment efficiency.
The HTR steadfastly aims to improve organizational pathways while working to identify additional seeds research related to new drugs, medical equipment, and regenerative medicine, as well as to improve the organizational support structure to strengthen the support for implementation of new seeds research, development, and application of results in cooperation with non-academic entities. The HTR is also involved in the training of researchers working to acquire a wide variety of expertise to enable us to provide superior support for each of the seeds research efforts meeting the needs of research projects that requiring advanced scientific knowledge along with advances in medicine.
We are proactively supporting many seeds research projects conducted at the initiative of academia and make all possible effort to translate the results of seeds research into practical use with the minimum possible time lag. We benefit from and wish to express our appreciation to everybody for continued cooperation and understanding in the progress of our projects.

 

Keizo YAMAGUCHI

Principal Researcher/President, Hokkaido University

Taiji TSUKAMOTO

President, Sapporo Medical University

Akitoshi YOSHIDA

President, Asahikawa Medical University