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HISTORY
The Department of Medical Zoology was formally established by the Ministry of Education in April 1963. However, research and lectures in Medical Zoology was actually started more than 10 years before then, in the year 1950 when Dr. Kumada Nobuo an Honorary Professor from the Nagoya University, in his old age arrived to take the post of an Assistant in Microbiology. Two years later, in 1952, Professor Kanou Rokurou, a lecturer in Hygiene from the Institute of Infectious Diseases at the University of Tokyo, who later became the Founding Professor, joined Dr. Kumada and the two took up the challenge of Research and Education in Medical Zoology. After that, in 1954, when the Institution for Rural District Public Welfare and Medical Research (now the Medical Research Institute) was established, Dr. Kanou also held the post of Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology of the Institute. Then, in 1957, in his capacity as the Head of the Department of Public Health, he became in charge of both Public Health and Medical Zoology. In 1963, when regular Course activities were started, Dr. Kumada was promoted to Assistant Professor in that field. At that time, the laboratory was a small establishment made up of eight working staff and one graduate student.
As the main research theme at that time was Tsutsugamushi Disease, they investigated into the vector of Tsutsugamushi and contributed to the clarification of the Tsutsugamushi vector, isolation of Rickettsia pathogen from field mice, or Tsutsugamushi. Around that time, although transmission of the classical Tsutsugamushi Disease by the red Tsutsugamushi was well known, other types of Tsutsugamushi transmitting the mild form of the disease were not clarified yet. At this time an endemic disease on the Seven Islands of Izu which was being called ÒSeven IslandsÕ FeverÓ was confirmed to be Tsutsugamushi disease and Professors Kanou, Kumada and Kaneko joined the research team of Dr. Sasa Manabu of the Institute of Infectious Diseases, the University of Tokyo, to put their efforts together. Professor Kanou started work on "Taxonomic studies on medically highly important sorts of flies," which nobody quite understood as well. Professor Kumada conducted taxonomical studies on fleas whilst Kaneko began to study lice. The Tsutsugamushi research team continued their work with Dr. Tamiya Takeo (PhD) of the National Institute of Health as the team leader until around 1965. Professor Kanou had began earnest studies on flies from 1961, around which time, through the Ministry of Education Science Research Fund, Overseas Scientific Investigations were started. The theme was ÒStudies on Sanitation and Medically Highly Important Harmful Insects in Southeast Asia and the South Pacific Regions.Ó The first round of investigations occurred in 1973 and apart from Professor Kanou and Shinonaga, researchers from other universities, namely, Dr. Kurihara Takeshi (Teikyou University), Dr. Kurahashi Hiroshi (National Institute of Health) and Dr. Shima Hiroshi (Kyushu University) participated and for 3 months they traveled across Indonesia and New Guinea making inquiries. The second overseas survey trip was carried out in 1975 in Southeast Asia for 3 months, and the third round took place in the South Pacific Region to the east of New Guinea in 1977, also for about three months. Such studies continued even after that until 1994 for ten or more times in many countries including Pakistan, India, Nepal, Taiwan, New Guinea and Madagascar. These results have been compiled in scientific journals like "Japanese Journal of Medical Entomology and Zoology" and others.
The overseas scientific investigations were not limited to classification and ecological studies but basic research on control was conducted as well. From 1974, Dr. Hayashi Akifumi joined the research team and began studies on the insecticide resistance properties of houseflies. The research field was not just in-country but studies were conducted also in the countries from South Asia to South Pacific regions from Taiwan to West Samoa and Pakistan to Madagascar. To this extent of studying the insecticide resistant houseflies was an example that could not be found anywhere in the world. Once again in 1980, being supported by a grant from the Ministry of Health and Welfare (Chairman: Professor Kanou Rokurou), ÒResearch on drug sensitivity of lice in communal living and as establishment of preventive measuresÓ was conducted, and the placement of preventive measures to the rapid spread of head lice at that time and the development of lice exterminator were tackled as well. As a result of this study, the problem was solved by the treatment with phenothrin (sumisurin¨powder), a pyrethroid insecticide which was put on the market by Sumitomo Chemical Co. Ltd.
Then in 1985 when Professor Kanou was selected as the President of this university and had to leave this laboratory, the working staff, graduate and post-graduate including foreign students had reported most of the study results.
In 1987, Professor Fujita Koichiro moved from Nagasaki University to fill in the vacancy. For the past 20 years until then, Professor Fujita had been working as Head of the Japanese-American Parasitic Society on the relationship between filarial infections and adult T-cell leukemia, and continued with basic research towards the development of filarial vaccine. Depending on the research outcome, he almost continuously received the grants from the Ministry of Education in 1986, 1988, 1992 and 1994. Again in 1990, as a member of the Ministry of Welfare Tropical Diseases Research team, he engaged in basic research towards prevention of filarial infection and applied epidemiological research for 3 years.
In 1988, a lecturer, Dr. Sugiyama Etsuro who had been researching on medical entomology resigned and Dr. Yamaoka Kunio who had specialized in immunology was received as a lecturer to replace him. Yamaoka conducted research on the role of T-cells in parasitic infection with special emphasis on the relations with cytokines. Special attention was given worldwide to the role of increased CD23 on T- and B-cell surfaces due to filarial infections. The role was not only important in parasitic infections but became valuable data to clarify allergic disorders. This research gained recognition, Yamaoka was invited to the Curie Institute in France and in 1993 he was employed in the same laboratory as a regular research member. The graduate students at the time conducted immunological research on Host Parasite Relationship in filarial infections, and the fact that in filarial infections, IL-2 receptor on T-cell increases, that the hostÕs immune condition changes in reaction to Th-2, are some of the excellent research achievements they left behind.
In 1994, Dr. Nobuaki Akao, a lecturer from Kanazawa University joined this laboratory. In addition to his research works in the past, his research areas which include disease condition and diagnosis of toxocariasis as well as parasitic infections common to both human and animals have increased.
Due to the change over from the Graduate School which, coincided with the implementation of structural reform of the University, the name of the laboratory changed to ÒInternational Environmental ParasitologyÓ with effect from 1st April 2000. In the year 2002 when Assistant Professor Shinonaga Satoshi retired from active service, Akao assumed that office and in January 2003, Dr. Hayashi was accepted as an Assistant and is currently occupying that position.
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