Home ＞Message from program leader
Message from program leader
Takao KONDO
The Nagoya University Academic Charter, established in February 2000, states a set of principles and defines two long-term goals as fundamental objectives for research and education: “cultivation of courageous intellectuals” and “production of results of scholastic distinction on the international stage.” To achieve these goals, the University has steadily developed a research and education program aimed at facilitating sophisticated, international-caliber scientific work. This program has produced brilliant academic results, including research that has been recognized by a Nobel Prize. Furthermore, the program has trained a large number of prominent alumni, who have made major contributions to national culture. On the basis of these accomplishments, Nagoya University seeks to further enhance its capacity to serve as a source of training, and to develop increasingly sophisticated, globally competitive research capabilities.
To realize these goals for research and education, this Global COE is operated as a collaboration between nine laboratories in the Division of Biological Science of Graduate School of Science and eight laboratories in three Departments (Biological Mechanisms and Functions, Applied Molecular Biosciences, and Bioengineering Sciences) of Graduate School of Bioagricultural Sciences. Our aim is to cultivate researchers and highly specialized engineers with the potential to adapt to unknown fields and conduct unique studies.
Aiming for the future of biological science
By concentrating on isolation and functional analysis of genes, biological research has succeeded in producing considerable results over the past three decades. Since the completion of the genome projects, however, the focus of biological research is shifting from the functions of individual genes to behaviors of complicated systems that emerge from the interactions of a multitude of factors. These recent developments necessitate the promotion of a combination of approaches collectively called “systems biology.” Due to advances in systems biology, structural biology, and breeding technologies based on genomic information, the ability to design biological functions is coming within reach. To lead biology into a new era, it is absolutely necessary to introduce a research approach that integrates molecular structural analysis, information theory, and mathematical analysis on the foundation of traditional molecular biology.