TEL. 03-3353-8111
〒162-8666 8-1, Kawada-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
The field of Integrated Medical Sciences was established within the Advanced
Biomedical Science Major of the Graduate School of Medicine, Tokyo Women’s
Medical University, with a foundation of International Research and Educational
Institute for Integrated Medical Sciences (IREIIMS) by the fund of Program
for Promoting the Establishment of Strategic Research Centers, Special
Coordination Funds for Promoting Science and Technology, Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan) on 2006. In our field of
Integrated Medical Sciences, we conduct research on medical sciences by
means of integration of basic sciences and clinical medical research. Our
main focus is on elucidation of molecular mechanisms of diseases and its
application to development of novel and efficient medical procedures for
prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases. Although there have been
many fruits of basic research to understand the disease mechanisms so far,
these fruits may not have been well applied to medical practice, which
is often called ‘the valley of death’ that means a gap between basic research
and clinical medicine. The gap is regarded as a big problem for medical
research today, therefore, translational research that bridges the gap
is especially encouraged.
On the other hand, a reverse translation that means an application of problems
found in clinical medicine on basic research is also important. In Integrated
Medical Sciences, we promote bidirectional translational research bridging
basic sciences and clinical medicine on diseases of cancer, life style-associated,
and congenital anomalies by means of advanced molecular analyzing techniques
employing equipments in Tokyo Women’s Medical University Institute for
Integrated Medical Sciences (TIIMS) that was founded as a successor of
IREIIMS.
Regenerative medicine is interdisciplinary, achieving more than medical
science or engineering alone. This research field integrates medicine,
science and engineering to provide innovative, new concepts and approaches
for the future development of medicine.
1) To uncover the molecular mechanisms of cancer and its application to
development of novel molecular medicines
Cancer is a molecular disease. Signaling pathways are major players in
phenotypes of the disease. The pathways form very complex networks consisted
of many molecules interacting each other, where there remains a big room
to be uncovered. We pursue research to analyze the complex molecular pathways
in cancer and its application to development of novel molecular medicines
useful for prevention, diagnosis, and therapy of the disease.
2) Elucidation of molecular mechanisms of diseases by means of comprehensive
genomic analysis
Genes implicated in diseases have been identified by linkage and association
analyses with positional cloning or candidate gene analyses. However recently,
a major breakthrough has been taken place by development of the massive
parallel sequencer that enables comprehensive whole genome sequencing in
a single institution in a modest cost. By using this high-throughput sequencer
as well as other advanced molecular analyzing techniques, we conduct research
on understanding molecular mechanisms of diseases and elucidate information
useful for clinical medicine.
3) Research on the context of the genome copy number and disease susceptibility
There are so many genomic copy number variations in the human genome. Some
of the copy number variations are related to specific human disorders such
as congenital disorders and the development of cancers. Disease susceptibility
of the copy number variations is the target of this study.
Hiroyuki Akagawa. MD, PhD.
Assoicate Professor
Experience: Neurosurgery, Neurology, Genetics, Genomics, Bioinformatics
Research interests: Stroke, Movement disorders
〒162-8666
8-1, Kawada-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
TEL +81-3-3353-8111