[April 2013 organizational change]
Reborn as IMS to explore new research possibilities > Center for Integrative Medical Sciences
Outline of Project



A major goal of the Human Genome Project is to apply the research results to healthcare. As the research progresses, the following may become possible.

  1. Researchers will have a detailed understanding of the mechanisms causing disease and its symptoms, including diseases of unknown cause for which physicians cannot even begin developing a cure at present.
  2. Researchers are expected to be able to develop new diagnostic methods and innovative drugs (through evidence-based drug development), by targeting the genes, proteins or other biological components that are proven to be the cause of the disease or symptom (evidence).
  3. Personalized medicine, where the treatment is tailored to the individual, may become possible, for example through different drug treatments for different patients with the same diagnosis or similar symptoms, on the basis of subtle differences in each patient.
  4. In the future, it may be possible to determine how susceptible each individual is to various diseases and, by adjusting the lifestyle of each individual based on this information, to prevent disease onset, delay disease onset, or achieve rapid diagnosis and treatment of a disease.
  The BioBank Japan Project on the implementation of personalized medicine

We are well aware that each individual differs in terms of whether they are susceptible to a particular disease or whether they are more likely to suffer side effects from drug treatment. We currently accept this concept by thinking of it as differences in an individual constitution. Instead of this vague concept, researchers are now starting to provide scientific evidences based on differences in genetic variations in each individual. For example, we ascribe someone's tolerance for alcohol to their constitution, but it is well known that alcohol tolerance depends on genetic differences in an enzyme that breaks down alcohol in the body.

Around the world, researchers are developing databases with information on these types of differences in our genetic code. In Japan, the BioBank Japan Project on the implementation of personalized medicine (Project Leader: Yusuke Nakamura) have begun in fiscal year of 2003 with the support of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). The project aims for construction of basic information for personalized medicine.

The SNPResearchCenter functions as a core research organization for the personalized medicine project and plays a central role in genetic analysis. We will work in cooperation with patients by the words "Your understanding for our future" to provide better healthcare options for the benefit of patients.

We ask for your collaboration, for the sake of
our descendants and others suffering from the same disease.