Vice Dean, Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine/ School of Medicine
Tohru Kataoka, MD, PhD
One focus of the research at Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine is that we have been leading and expanding the knowledge of "signal transduction mechanisms in cells", a vast area of investigation, building on the foundation of Emeritus Professor Nishizuka's achievements related to Protein Kinase C, which are particularly world-renowned. Furthermore, the adoption of our research program "Center of Excellence for Research on Signal Transduction Diseases Using Diabetes Mellitus as a Model" for the 21st Century Center of Excellence Program has accelerated the translational research that bridges the gap between the basic medical research and clinical practice. Applied research, however, can be hindered by a lack of ideas unless it has a strong foundation on basic medical achievements. Basic research, particularly creative research from freewheeling thinking, should be highly respected both in basic and clinical medicine. Our new research program, the “Global Center of Excellence for Education and Research in Integrative Membrane Biology”, in which the Graduate School of Medicine plays a central role and in which all life science-related departments of Kobe University extensively collaborate with each other, was accepted for the Global COE Program of life sciences in 2007. This has fostered further advances in our cutting-edge basic research of membrane biology.
We have provided two different courses for postgraduate education since 2006 to establish an education system that can meet the needs of students of greater diversity. The “Education course that fuses basic and clinical medicine” was developed for the training of researchers, while the “Professional education course of advanced clinical medicine” was introduced to provide clinicians with superior research competency. Since the “Young Leader Fostering Program for Life Science Research” was adopted as an “Attractive Postgraduate Education” initiative in 2005, we have implemented a specialized education program to provide young researchers with extensive knowledge and to creative greater research capabilities for our exceptional second year Ph.D. students that are screened according to their research proposals. The contents of this program have been introduced into the education system “Young Leader Fostering Course for Membrane Biology Research” of the Global COE Program. Furthermore, we have been devoting our energies to nurturing “Clinician-Scientists” by substantial fusion of basic and clinical medicine.
With our nurturing medical doctors, who have a high sense of ethical responsibility and sophisticated knowledge and skills, the School of Medicine provides education with strong emphasis on the development of problem-identifying abilities and the ability to participate on the international stage. Our aim is to foster medical doctors and researchers in the life and medical sciences who have a view of “scientists” as being rich in intellectual curiosity and creativity.
Undergoing unprecedented changes in the systems and organizations that were triggered by the transition to corporate status, universities are exposed to increasingly severe competition. The Graduate School of Medicine and the School of Medicine have a responsibility to promote distinctive education and research at a high level, to secure the necessary funds from both outside and inside, and to send out and give back the achievements to society in addition to enhancing the level of education and research. To fulfill such responsibilities, building a team of excellent faculty members and students is our top priority, while formulating definite future plans and establishing a governing structure for organization and operations. We welcome promising youth into the Kobe University Graduate School of Medicine and School of Medicine.