YOSHIKI DONATES 10 MILLION YEN TO JAPAN'S NATIONAL CENTER FOR GLOBAL HEALTH AND MEDICINE

YOSHIKI has donated 10 million yen (approx. $100,000) to the National Center for Global Health and Medicine through his 501(c)(3) non-profit organization Yoshiki Foundation America. The National Center for Global Health and Medicine researches infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases, including the coronavirus. The organization’s Center Hospital is the National Center's only general hospital, and it has the largest number of accommodations for specified infectious diseases. With the world in chaos due to the spread of the coronavirus, YOSHIKI has been stressing the importance of properly handling the coronavirus, even before Japan declared a state of emergency. Now that there are over 10,000 coronavirus cases in Japan, the health system is likely to collapse. Fearing this situation, YOSHIKI has donated to support frontline healthcare providers. YOSHIKI commented on the donation: "In America, where I live, there have been over 54,000 coronavirus deaths. It's so sad. I heard that, unfortunately, the virus has also been spreading in Japan. It saddens me that people working in the entertainment industry, including myself, as well as people from many other industries, are economically and psychologically stressed because nobody knows when things will settle down. However, I believe that the people we should be supporting are the healthcare workers who are treating coronavirus patients as we speak. I wanted to support as much as I could. I want people, including myself, to remember that the actions of everyone who's enduring staying home are contributing thousands of times more to the healthcare workers than what I have donated. I will also do my best as a musician to support people." The National Center for Global Health and Medicine commented regarding YOSHIKI's donation: "Our center aims to contribute to the health and welfare of people in Japan and all around the world through the fields of medical care, research, education, and international cooperation. Our mission includes the identification, assessment, prevention, diagnosis, and development of cutting-edge treatments for infectious diseases and other diseases, as well as promoting the development of medical supplies and equipment to make it possible to apply those treatments in clinical sites. We believe that this is exactly what YOSHIKI has been supporting. Our staff members will continue their dedicated efforts to overcome the critical situation Japan is facing today." Yoshiki Photo credit: YSK Entertainment.   In March, the Japanese rock star donated $100,000 to the COVID-19 Relief Fund in the U.S. established by The Recording Academy/GRAMMY's and its charitable foundation MusiCares to help music creators and professionals affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Additionally, this year alone, YOSHIKI has also donated 10 million yen (approx. $100,000) to the Japan Red Cross in commemoration of the ninth anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake, and donated a total of $24,000 to Meals on Wheels branches across Los Angeles for seniors affected by the coronavirus situation. YOSHIKI also donated a combined $100,000 to Australian Wildfire Relief and the Rainforest Trust. He has supported numerous other humanitarian causes, including donating $100,000 to disaster relief for Hurricane Harvey victims in Texas in 2017. YOSHIKI was interviewed by BBC News about the COVID-19 pandemic and collaborating with Bono, will.i.am, and Jennifer Hudson to create the hopeful new song "#SING4LIFE." Watch the BBC News interview with YOSHIKI here: https://youtu.be/_T4GHeIwyXw. and listen to the song “#SING4LIFE” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lz-DoaHi3zo&feature=youtu.be. YOSHIKI recently hosted a conversation with Nobel Laureate Shinya Yamanaka (Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and director of the Center for iPS Cell Research) to discuss worldwide health concerns. The video was streamed worldwide on Yoshiki Channel International and is available now on YouTube: https://youtu.be/yckQnJp9fp8. Yoshiki Foundation America: https://www.yoshikifoundationamerica.org YOSHIKI: https://www.yoshiki.net

The Japanese Cancer Association and Debiopharm Group Announce Winners of the 2016 JCA-Mauvernay Award

Debiopharm Group^™(www.debiopharm.com), a Swiss-based global biopharmaceutical company, will be presenting the ‘JCA-Mauvernay Award’ on October 8 to Doctors Hidewaki Nakagawa from the RIKEN Center for Integrated Medical Sciences for his basic research on Molecular Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancers Using Genome Sequencing and Genome-wide Association Study and Hiroyuki Seimiya from the Division of Molecular Biotherapy, Cancer Chemotherapy Center of the Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research for his applied research onTelomere Maintenance System as an Anticancer Therapeutic Target.

Doctors Nakagawa and Seimiya will receive their Awards during the General Assembly of the 75^th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Cancer Association (JCA) in Yokohama on the following theme: ‘Breakthroughs in Cancer Treatment: Collaboration of Basic, Translational and Clinical Research’. Dr. Kohei Miyazono, President of the JCA and Thierry Mauvernay, Co-President & Delegate of the Board of Debiopharm Group, will present the trophies to both scientists.

Dr. Nakagawa has been working on cancer genomics for many years. He has analyzed gene expression profiles of pancreatic and prostate cancer cells to identify target genes for molecular diagnosis and therapies. He has elucidated their biological functions and demonstrated that they could serve as targets of antibody, small interfering RNA (siRNA) or immune-mediated therapies. Dr. Nakagawa has also analyzed the mutational landscape of Japanese liver cancers by whole genome sequencing and using next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology and has identified several oncogenic mutations.

Telomeres maintenance system could be a promising anticancer strategy as cancer cells often activate telomere-lengthening enzymes to counteract the natural telomere-shortening process ensuing from repeated cell cycles and leading to normal cell senescence and death. Dr. Seimiya and his group have conducted studies on telomeres and telomere-related factors. They have reported that long telomeres increase the levels of the telomeric non-coding RNA, which in turn suppresses the innate immune genes expression in cancer.

“For more than 10 years, our goal has been to reward outstanding achievements in the field of oncology amongst Japanese researchers. We are pleased to see that they are still very committed. We congratulate Doctors Nakagawa and Seimiya for the high quality of their research and hope their work will lead to effective treatments in the years to come”, said Thierry Mauvernay, Co-President & Delegate of the Board of Debiopharm Group.

Kanazawa University Japan launches Institute for Frontier Science Initiative（InFiniti）—a multi-million dollar global hub for international interdisciplinary research

Japan’s Kanazawa University launches Institute for Frontier Science Initiative（InFiniti）its flagship multi-million dollar global research-hub in interdisciplinary research in core areas including controlling cancer progression; innovative integrated bioscience; and creating future societies.

Kanazawa University is one of Japan’s premier education and research institutes with three colleges and 16 schools offering courses in subjects that include medicine, computer engineering, and humanities.

The Institute for Frontier Science Initiative（InFiniti）is Kanazawa University’s new multi-million dollar flagship interdisciplinary research hub where international groups of scientists will undertake research in areas including diagnosis and treatment of ‘nutrition related’ diseases such as diabetes and cancer; archaeology and  cultural resource management; and so-called ‘supramolecules’ and ‘proton-conducting’ solids for next-generation fuel cells. Notably, research at Infiniti will be conducted by approximately 1000 scientists, covering 85 topics with annual research funding of approximately US$4 million.

“We welcome scientists from all over the world to collaborate with us in the search for long term solutions to global issues in medicine, energy, management of the world’s cultural heritage, and a sustainable society,” says Shinichi Nakamura, the Director of InFiniti. “Scientists can join us at Kanazawa in Japan or collaborate based at their own institutes.”

The Institute for Frontier Science Initiative also has funding for establishing joint degrees programs, student exchange, and hiring of ‘university research administrators’ to promote and support the project on a global scale.

Research highlight by scientists at InFiniti

Journal: Cell Reports 14, pp.1–13, March 15, 2016.

Institute for Frontier Science Initiative research: Mechanism revealed linking liver disease and obesity

Researchers find similarities in the impeded signalling between central insulin activity and glucose production in the liver for both obese mice and mice that have had the vagus nerve removed.

The vital role of insulin in controlling glucose production is often disrupted in people suffering from obesity, a condition approaching global epidemic levels. Previous work has shown that central insulin action suppresses glucose production in the liver by increasing levels of the ligand interleukin 6 (IL-6) in the liver. The ligand activates the transcription factor STAT3, which in turn suppresses gene expression of glucose-producing enzymes. However, how the liver communicates with central nervous system and the vagus nerve, which controls unconscious processes like digestion, has so far not been understood.

Now a collaboration of researchers in Japan led by Hiroshi Inoue at Kanazawa University’s  Institute for Frontier Science Initiative (InFiniti) has identified the molecular mechanism for this communication.

The researchers investigated the effects of administering chlorisondamine, which prevents α7-nicotinic acetylcholine receptor activity, as well as removal of the vagal nerve. They found that while STAT3 phosphorylation and IL-6 expression in the liver increased only slightly the IL-6/STAT3 signalling response to administered insulin was lost.

The researchers compared the response in regular and obese mice and found that the administered insulin “failed to elicit changes in vagus nerve activity of high-fat diet-induced obese mice.” They conclude, “These findings suggest that the aberrant regulation of Kupffer cells via the vagus nerve and α7-nAchR-mediated cholinergic action by central insulin action may have a significant role in the pathogenesis of chronic hepatic inflammation in obesity.”