Global COE Program

Program Leader: Masaki NODA, MD, PhD (Professor, Medical Research Institute)

Tokyo Medical and Dental University is a distinguished institute and known as a world center for the study of "tooth" and "bone" diseases. The purpose of this Global COE (GCOE) program is to form a world-top class research center in the field of tooth and bone diseases. This program is a new development as well as succession of previous 21st century COE (21COE) program. We will promote our cutting-edge studies on tooth and bone diseases and form a unique international educational research center. Our GCOE program will nurture young researchers of the next generation who will work globally on molecular science in "tooth" and "bone" diseases. This is critical for the future welfare of all human beings and is of particular importance in Japan, the world's most rapidly aging society.

　In modern developed counties, maintenance of not only life expectancy , but also "healthylife expectancy" is an importantissue, and "tooth" and "bone" diseases are major problems that need to be urgently addressed in this regard. In the 21st century COE program, this center has made a remarkable accomplishment in clarification of the mechanism of loss of tooth and bone and in discovery of novel methods for tooth and bone reconstruction by finding "key elements" of the regulatory systems in the function of osteoclasts and osteoblasts and those in initiation for clinical medicine. However, identif ication of individual discoveries and accomplishments alone is not enough to understand the mechanisms of the comprehensive pathology and onset of the diseases. Thus, in the Global COE program, such achievements of basic studies and those of clinical research established in the previous 21st Century COE program will be integrated and developed into three areas including (1) elucidation of basic molecular mechanisms in pathology of the diseases leading to loss of tooth and bone , (2) fundamental clinical research for diagnosis and therapeutic treatments and also (3) advancement of functional genomic studies on tooth and bone diseases based on genomic and epigenetic science. Through the research concentrated into these three areas, this center will aim to become the highest standard organization in the wo rld in terms of integrated research on molecular science for tooth and bone diseases. Moreover, we will further develop an international research network. Through these efforts, we will establish an intelligence hub that will create innovative science and lead the research in this field to provide cutting edge information worldwide.