Research Support Content for FY2024

General Support Activities

We will hold result presentation meetings for young researchers to promote the sharing of information between support users and providers and the nurturing of young researchers. We will continue to exchange information with, and support cooperation with, biospecimen banks and cohort studies in Japan. By participating as an exhibitor at relevant academic conferences, we will further increase the awareness of our support activities and strive to identify needs to improve our support. We will continue to provide support to research towards overcoming COVID-19, as well as support to eliminate obstacles to research caused by COVID-19 and large-scale disasters and the like and to accelerate research.

A. Group for supporting researchers by providing biological resources from a cohort study

Group Leader and Co-investigator: Kenji Wakai (Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, Nagoya University)

These support activities will provide the following research support by using biospecimens and data (on lifestyle and medical history, health checkup data, follow-up data on deaths and cancer status, etc.) collected in five cohort studies, mainly the Japan Multicenter Cohort (J-MICC) Study (participated in by 105,000 persons) which has recruited participants since 2005 (or 2004 at some centers) and has conducted follow-up surveys.

1. Provision of biospecimens and data as controls for case-control studies (A-1 below)
2. Cross-sectional studies using genotype data (mainly typing data based on SNP arrays) (A-2 below)
3. Cross-sectional studies not using genotype data (A-3 below)
4. Cohort studies using as outcome health checkup data from the second survey on deaths, cancer status, or circulatory disease status (including those using genotype data) (A-4 below)

B. Support for constructing and utilizing brain resources

Group Leader and Co-investigator: Shigeo Murayama (Project Professor, United Graduate School of Child Development, Osaka University)

To support studies aiming to elucidate psychiatric or neurological disorders, we will accumulate and provide postmortem brains as open resources. By building the Japanese Brain Bank Network for Neuroscience Research, we aim to spread these activities across Japan and promote the substantial use of these brains.

C. Group for supporting research using biospecimen

Group Leader and Co-investigator: Yataro Daigo (Project Professor, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo)

We will support: the promotion of bottom-up type studies in Japan across all areas of life sciences that are based on a systematic understanding of in vivo molecular dynamics in humans; the further use of the results of these basic studies to elucidate life phenomena; and the transition of those studies to applied studies. In the support for “Ultra-sensitive molecular pathological analysis using biological samples and construction of multicenter collaborative research network” and the “Support for multilayered omics and information analysis using biological samples,” we will, with respect to bio functional molecules, biomarkers, etc. that are being analyzed by support recipients, provide support for ultra-sensitive molecular pathological analysis or various types of omics analysis using biospecimens associated with accurate background information held by our group. As for support for analysis, techniques or cooperation using biospecimens or for related activities, we aim to support a total of 28 projects (each consisting of around 10 assays/activities). In the “Support for accumulation and provision of human biological samples (tissue and blood samples) and background information” and “Support for hematological malignancy bioresources,” our targets are to collect 700 FFPE and frozen tumor tissue samples per year, 1,000 blood samples per year, and 1,000 samples from HTLV-1 infected subjects, all mainly from cancer-related patients. As for support by providing samples and related activities, our target is a total of 22 projects (each consisting of around 50 samples/activities). As for the collection of samples, we will promote the accumulation of techniques for adding to, storing, and analyzing various test information and will provide support in pathological morphology by pathologists. By reinforcing the foundations of shared/collaborative research-supporting institutes in a manner that responds to the latest support needs and to trends in life science research, and by timely sharing information with these institutes, we will further strengthen the cooperative systems involved in the facilitation of support. Through websites, lecture meetings, academic conferences, etc., we will engage in awareness activities (4 projects) to spread know-how on, and promote social cooperation for, collecting and providing biospecimens in Japan and supporting analysis and cooperation using these biospecimens. We will also accept training programs for persons involved, from time to time at relevant institutes.

D. Support for Biomedical data analysis

Group Leader and Co-investigator: Masahiro Nakatochi (Associate Professor, Graduate School of Medicine [Health], Nagoya University)

This group broke away from 'A. Group for supporting researchers by providing biospecimens from a cohort study' in FY2022 and is carrying out more fulfilling activities to support data analysis.

1. "Support for the analysis of large-scale omics data" (D-1) :
   We will support the omics data analysis, including genomic data from large populations.
2. "Support for medical large-scale data analysis" (D-2) :
   We will conduct activities to support the analysis of so-called real-world data, such as data from cohort studies, registries, or electronic medical records.
3. We will continue to hold a seminar on genetic statistics this fiscal year, as we have done every year, to improve researchers' knowledge of genomic data analysis.
4. Starting in FY2022, we will also hold a seminar for beginners on analyzing observational study data, including real-world data.

Support Content

• Research Support Content for FY2024
• A. Group for supporting researchers by providing biological resources from a cohort study
• B. Support for constructing and utilizing brain resources
• C. Group for supporting research using biospecimen
• D. Support for Biomedical data analysis