Program Leader's Address Masaki Noda, M.D., Ph.D.

Frontier Research Program on Molecular Destruction and Reconstruction of Tooth and Bone 　　Our COE program, devoted to frontier research on teeth and bones, has two major goals. The first of these is to promote advanced research in the field of hard tissue diseases. As the aged population continues to rise in Japan as well as other developed countries, musculoskeletal system‐ related diseases are becoming a major problem due to the critical impairment in QOL and enormous medical cost. Weakness of the muscle, loss of bone mass and loss of tooth significantly reduce human resources in our society. Furthermore, quite rapid increase in aged population has caused increase in patients with cancers, especially those metastasized to bone. The common issue of these diseases is the destruction of the hard tissue. 　　This COE team has been organized to tackle such problems by coordinated efforts of multi‐ disciplinary groups of investigators including bone biologists, molecular biologists, developmental biologists, genome scientists, biochemists, restorative dentists, periodontologists, maxillofacial surgeons, rheumatologists, nano‐ science specialists and orthopedic surgeons. Collaborative investigation by the team members will lead to the identification of molecular cascades of events operating during the destruction of tooth and bone. We will utilized the information obtained based on the studies of such molecular mechanisms to reconstruct and to finally resume the function of bone and tooth. Our research will have a special emphasis on genome medicine and nano‐ science in the field of tooth and bonediseases. 　　Second point of our program is to raise young excellent researchers in the field of bone and teeth studies. Our COE program has launched a core research team, which consists of world-top class young investigators. These talented young scientists have established state-of-the-art research in the bone field. They will conduct their studies and teach selected sets of students as chaperon research professors. Importantly, most of these young scientists have been recruited from the institutes outside of our university. The brain storm discussion and collaboration among these scientists will give a great opportunityto obtain novel insights into the medical and dental problems. The interaction will be established through the weekly meeting of the COE members. We will expand the network of international investigators in this field, which we have already generated with the leading scientists in the world. Such web of brains would be the key for this young team seeking for the discovery of molecules and mechanisms operating underlying the physiology and pathology of tooth and bone diseases. 　　Our COE program also includes special projects to concentrate ourselves on our training and education of the excellent students in our graduate school. This is designed to give the top selected students to have an opportunity to further open up their future through the intimate interrelationship between them and with the core team of young scientists recruited as mentioned above. We call these selected students as Super Students since they are selected based on the competition through the rating of their presentation and discussion in front of the COE team members. We will identify and support the budding of the ability of the young researchers who exhibit high possibility to grow. We will help develop their scientific carrier paths to bloom as independent investigators by training through in our nest of the COE program. To further support early independency, we have designed special teaching discussion series and lecture series for the super students. Teaching discussion series will be conducted by multiple advisory professors during the presentataion of the research plan by each of the super student. Interanation teaching discussion series will be conducted by world-top class researchers invited every month to give opportunities to have individual discussion with each of the super students. 　　 In addition, we will start a new award system for the initiation of independency of these young researchers and students. A limited number of training grants will be obtained on a competitive base by the young core team scientists and super students. Through the process of selection of grant proposals, we will train these young scientists and super students how to construct their thought to tackle the problems based on the current observations and experimental data. 　　We will communicate closely with super students through various training activities in our COE program to let them reach the goal of being excellent scientists who are capable of giving novel, insightful and unique thoughts. Development of tight and respectful relationship between mentors and mentees through the research activities in our COE program is necessary to establish a solid base of true research environment. As exemplified by the Gideon A. Rodan mentorship award constitued by the ASBMR, such relationship is reagared as an imporatant key for bone science. Our COE training program should be a place to raise both students and mentors. 　　On the initiation of this COE program, we should make every effort to create a novel and truly innovative graduate school education system in our university to be the best of all to provide the society a future generation of brilliant young physician scientists and researchers to fight for the human health problems.