Kansai University is aiming to contribute to the development of cutting-edge technology that will innovate medical care. To this end, the Collaborative Research Center of Engineering, Medicine and Pharmacology (CEMP) which was established in the Organization for Research and Development of Innovative Science and Technology (ORDIST), is working to develop medical devices and materials using Kansai University Medical Polymers (KUMP) and also to develop human resources.
Currently in Japan, the transition from academic research to practical application is somewhat unsmooth. Therefore, we realized that it is necessary for material chemists, mechanical engineers, and medical doctors to join forces and pursue the same research objectives. We believe that the time is ripe for such collaboration. We organized multiple occasions for the three disciplines to understand each other’s situations and challenges to avoid one-way approach. This process has created a shared platform in which each party pursues research with the same objectives and awareness of issues.
This project aims to solve the medical problems that Japan faces today. To this end, we material chemists, design and synthesize KUMP, while the mechanical engineers design devices and systems that use KUMP. Meanwhile, we identify needs of medical problems by listening to medical doctors at the frontline. In this way, we are developing medical devices for the People (patients and medical doctors) based on the “triple M”-materials, mechanics, and medicine. We intend to develop this project in a university-wide effort with a view to commercializing our products and making a real contribution to easing patients’ burdens. Another goal is to raise public awareness about the important role that manufacturers-a forte of Japan and Kansai University in particular-play in the medical sector and thereby, invigorate and inspire all those who work in Japan’s industrial sector.
This project, “Forging the Future of Medical Practice with KUMPs that Meet Users’ Needs,” which was selected under the 2016 MEXT Program “Branding Projects in the Academic Research of Private Universities,” promotes diverse, original, and innovative research with a view to creating space for research at a global level. I believe that such a project provides a stage for presenting our university’s knowledge.
Kansai University boasts of the greatest number of biomedical researchers among Japanese universities, making it a major base for research in this area. Capitalizing on this potential, the university started collaborating with Osaka Medical College through academic exchanges and medicine-engineering integration in 2003. We then moved up a notch in 2004, establishing the Medical Engineering Collaborative Research Center in the Foundation for Promoting Cutting-Edge Science and Technology. Then, in 2012, we started holding the Conference for Medicine-Engineering Collaboration with Osaka Medical College and a third party, Osaka University of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Together with these two institutions, we are working to support the men and women in the heart of medical practice.
This project has Kansai University’s ethos written all over it. It facilitates close medicine-engineering collaboration between the university’s material chemists (from the Faculty of Chemistry, Materials and Bioengineering), its mechanical engineers (from the Faculty of Engineering Science), and the medical doctors from Osaka Medical College. Through such collaboration, we promote research centered on Kansai University Medical Polymers with the ultimate aim of generating next-generation medical care that meets the needs of users in Japan and around the world.
