International Consortium for Medical Care of Hibakusha and Radiation Life Science: a multidisciplinary program of Nagasaki University for the 21st Century Center of Excellence (COE) in Japan

Abstract In October 2002, the Japanese Government started a new policy called Center of Excellence (COE) Project to selectively provide grants to universities for the promotion of their international contribution to education and research in the whole fields of science. Nagasaki University, the only university in the world that suffered the atomic bomb disaster in 1945, gained a COE grant for a multidisciplinary program that aims at combining three dimensions of research on the effect of radiation on humans; first, basic radiation biology, second, international medical care for people (Hibakusha) exposed to radiation and third, epidemiological research on atomic bomb survivors to reveal the molecular mechanism of radiation injury and induction of malignant diseases. Universities and institutions in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, United States and former Soviet Union countries (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Kazakhstan) are engaged in this consortium and exchange young investigators and graduate students. Globally renowned investigators from these countries gather annually in Nagasaki to discuss the progress in the field of radiation life science. Our ultimate goal is to establish medical intervention of radiation-induced cancers and regenerative medicine for radiation victims through the development of molecular diagnostic technique, molecular targeting therapy and cell therapy. This COE program should offer a solution for the medical consequences of radio contamination in a globally widespread area on the Earth due to uncontrolled nuclear energy in the 20th century.