CMX Retreat “Wakate Dojo” in FY 2023
Octber 6–7, 2023 | AWAJI YUMEBUTAI International Conference Center
Ryota Shinohara, Chairperson of the executive committee
The Center for Medial Transformation (CMX) Retreat “Wakate Dojo” was held over two days, October 6 and 7, 2023, organized by Prof. Tomoyuki Furuyashiki and managed by a committee mainly composed of young faculty members. The “Wakate Dojo” began as the “Center for Cell Signaling and Medical Innovation (CSMI) Retreat” in 2018, and this year marked its sixth time. The retreat aims to strengthen collaboration among researchers and revitalize the organization by providing a platform for presentations, exchanges, and mutual understanding, particularly among young researchers affiliated with the center.
As in previous years, this year’s retreat was held face-to-face, with a total of 68 participants, the largest number ever recorded. This year’s theme was “Yutori (leeway),” and as part of this, excursion time was set aside on the first day of the retreat. Spending free time on activities such as the Yumebutai guided tour, botanical garden tour, or playing tennis fostered natural interactions beyond laboratory boundaries.
The special lectures featured Prof. Masaki Fukata from the Division of Neuropharmacology at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine and Prof. Masaru Ishii from the Department of Immunology and Cell Biology at Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine and Graduate School of Frontier Biosciences. Dr. Fukata delivered a lecture on “Mechanisms of synaptic function and synaptic disorders,” covering a wide range of topics from regulatory mechanisms of synaptic protein PSD-95, which is responsible for synaptic transmission and plasticity, to the pathological mechanisms of brain disorders caused by their disruption. Dr. Ishii gave a lecture on “Intravital imaging dissecting immune cellular dynamics and identifying novel pathogenic cell types in vivo,” discussing the discovery of new immune cell dynamics in rheumatoid arthritis and liver inflammation using in vivo imaging techniques. The special lectures were designed to be graduate lectures so that graduate students who could not attend on-site could also participate.
All participating graduate students presented their work in either oral, poster, or flash talk format, so that they could actively engage and have opportunities for discussion. Poster presentations were held at the same venue as dinner, followed by an information exchange session in the same venue, providing an opportunity for informal discussion. Nine oral presentations and eighteen poster presentations were given at the retreat. The quality of all presentations was very high, indicating that each presenter had prepared thoroughly. Awards for excellent presentations were given, selecting one winner from the oral presentations and three winners from the poster presentations. In addition, six faculty members from each laboratory introduced their research topics, experimental equipment, and techniques as “Lab introductions,” with the aim of developing into collaborative research.
The retreat concluded with Prof. Toru Takumi, Director of the Center, providing an overall evaluation, emphasizing the significance of young researchers from diverse fields gathering together face-to-face and deepening their interactions, and thus, the retreat ended on a high note.
Chairperson of the executive committee
Ryota Shinohara (Associate Professor of Pharmacology)
Executive committee members
Jun Arii (Project Associate Professor of Clinical Virology)
Keisuke Ito (Assistant Professor of Neural Differentiation and Regeneration)
Tsuyoshi Imasaki (Assistant Professor of Structural Medicine and Anatomy)
Takuo Emoto (Medical Research Fellow of Cardiovascular Medicine)
Motohiko Naito (Project Assistant Professor of Cell Physiology)