Breaking through the barriers of their respective fields, the world's top researchers have united to fight infectious diseases and develop life-saving vaccines.
At the end of 2019, a novel coronavirus emerged and caused an unprecedented pandemic that brought about immeasurable damage globally. While Western countries swiftly developed and introduced vaccines within the remarkable timeframe of one year from pathogen identification, it took more than three and half years for a Japanese-made vaccine to be authorized for use.
In response to this situation, the "Japan Initiative for World-leading Vaccine Research and Development Centers" was launched under the guidance of AMED SCARDA*, and at its forefront, the University of TOkyo Pandemic Preparedness, Infection, and Advanced Research Center (UTOPIA) has been chosen as the flagship institution.
UTOPIA serves as a dynamic hub where top researchers from various fields at the University of Tokyo come together. With a focus on vaccine development, we are committed to conquering infectious diseases through interdisciplinary research. While UTOPIA is rooted in the University of Tokyo, our collaborations extend beyond national borders, actively engaging international partners.
The COVID-19 pandemic revealed that Japan has fallen behind in both vaccine development and infectious disease research, with a major contributing factor being a shortage of talent. By nurturing young researchers at the University of Tokyo, UTOPIA aims to become a world-class research organization that leads cutting-edge research on infectious diseases and vaccines. Our shared mission is to save the world from infectious diseases!
Yoshihiro Kawaoka
Director
The University of TOkyo Pandemic Preparedness, Infection, and Advanced Research Center (UTOPIA)
*AMED: Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development
SCARDA: Strategic Center of Biomedical Advanced Vaccine Research and Development for Preparedness and Response
Visit by the Saint Louis University Delegation and Workshop Held
Top row (from left to right):Prof. Atsushi Iwama, Prof. Michiko Koga, Prof. Christine Jacobs, Prof. Adriana Montano, Prof. Ken Ishii
Bottom row (from left to right): Prof. Daniel F. Hoft, Prof. Hiroshi Yotsuyanagi, Prof. Fumitaka Nagamura, Prof. Tokiko Nagamura, Prof. Takashi Okada
March 2025Naoto Koyanagi, Kowit Hengphasatporn, Akihisa Kato, Moeka Nobe, Kosuke Takeshima, Yuhei Maruzuru, Katsumi Maenaka, Yasuteru Shigeta, Yasushi Kawaguchi
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS)
April 2025
Kouji Kobiyama, Daichi Utsumi, Yu Kaku, Eita Sasaki, Fumihiko Yasui, Tomotaka Okamura, Taishi Onodera, Asuka Joy Tobuse, Areej Sakkour, Ahmad Faisal Amiry, Tomoya Hayashi, Burcu Temizoz, Kaiwen Liu, Hideo Negishi, Noriko Toyama-Sorimachi, Michinori Kohara, Tatsuya Sawasaki, Junichi Takagi, Kei Sato, Yoshimasa Takahashi, Yasuhiro Yasutomi, Ken J Ishii
April 2025
17 March - 19 March 2025 | Kobe International Conference Center
March 2025Wataru Ise, Takuya Koike, Nozomi Shimada, Hiromi Yamamoto, Yuki Tai, Taiichiro Shirai, Ryoji Kawakami, Mana Kuwabara, Chie Kawai, Kyoko Shida, Takeshi Inoue, Nozomi Hojo, Kenji Ichiyama, Shimon Sakaguchi, Katsuyuki Shiroguchi, Kazuhiro Suzuki, Tomohiro Kurosaki
Journal of Experimental Medicine
February 2025
Department of Applied Chemistry, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
February 2025
January 2025
January 2025
Masaki Imai¶, Hiroshi Ueki, Mutsumi Ito, Kiyoko Iwatsuki-Horimoto, Maki Kiso, Asim Biswas, Sanja Trifkovic, Nigel Cook, Peter J. Halfmann, Gabriele Neumann, Amie J. Eisfeld, and Yoshihiro Kawaoka¶
Emerging Microbes & Infections
January 2025
January 2025
Hiroshi Ueki*¶, I-Hsuan Wang*, Maki Kiso, Kenta Horie, Shun Iida, Sohtaro Mine, Michiko Ujie, Hung-Wei Hsu, Chen-Hui Henry Wu, Masaki Imai, Tadaki Suzuki, Wataru Kamitani, Eiryo Kawakami, and Yoshihiro Kawaoka¶
January 2025
Ryo Amano, Masaki Takahashi*, Kazumi Haga, Mizuki Yamamoto, Kaku Goto, Akiko Ichinose, Michiaki Hamada, Jin Gohda, Jun-ichiro Inoue, Yasushi Kawaguchi, Meng Ling Moi, Yoshikazu Nakamura
Nucleic Acids Research Molecular Medicine
December 2024
Hiroshi Katoh, Ryuichi Kimura, Tsuyoshi Sekizuka, Kohei Matsuoka, Mika Hosogi, Yuki Kitai, Yukiko Akahori, Fumihiro Kato, Michiyo Kataoka, Hirotaka Kobayashi, Noriyo Nagata, Tadaki Suzuki, Yasuyuki Ohkawa, Shinya Oki, Makoto Takeda
December 2024
In the south-western Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a mysterious flu-like illness has reportedly caused the deaths of over 79 people. More than 300 cases have been reported, with symptoms including fever, headaches, coughing, breathing difficulties, and anemia.
9 December 2024 (updated on 19 December 2024 and 6 January 2025)29 November 2024
Three members from UTOPIA have been selected for a research grant from the Takeda Science Foundation. Congratulations!
Ryuta Uraki (UTOPIA)
Shiro Chiba (UTOPIA)
Naoki Morita (Institute for Quantitative Bioscience)
Kaku Y, Okumura K, Kawakubo S, Uriu K, Chen L, Kosugi Y, Uwamino Y, Begum MM, Leong S, Ikeda Sadamasu K, Asakura H, Nagashima M, Yoshimura K, Ito J, Sato K,
The Lancet Infectious Diseases
November 2024
Yajima H, Anraku Y, Kaku Y, Kimura KT, Plianchaisuk A, Okumura K, Nakada-Nakura Y, Atarashi Y, Hemmi T, Kuroda D, Takahashi Y, Kita S, Sasaki J, Sumita H; Genotype to Phenotype Japan (G2P-Japan) Consortium; Ito J, Maenaka K, Sato K, Hashiguchi T.
October 2024
Shiho Chiba*, Maki Kiso, Shinya Yamada, Kazuhiko Someya, Yoshikuni Onodera, Aya Yamaguchi, Satoko Matsunaga, Nao Jounai, Seiya Yamayoshi, Fumihiko Takeshita, and Yoshihiro Kawaoka¶
October 2024
From left: Professor Colin Grant, Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka, Professor Dane McCamey and Dr Ian Langford
30 October 2024
Chunyang Gu*, Tadashi Maemura*, Lizheng Guan*, Amie J. Eisfeld*, Asim Biswas*, Maki Kiso*, Ryuta Uraki, Mutsumi Ito, Sanja Trifkovic, Tong Wang, Lavanya Babujee, Robert Presler Jr., Randall Dahn, Yasuo Suzuki, Peter J. Halfmann, Seiya Yamayoshi, Gabriele Neumann, and Yoshihiro Kawaoka
News Release
H5N1 virus isolated from infected dairy worker is 100% lethal in ferrets, but does not appear to be circulating in nature anymore
October 2024
1 - 2 November 2024 | Shirokanedai, Tokyo
Muraoka D, Moi ML, Muto O, Nakatsukasa T, Deng S, Takashima C, Yamaguchi R, Sawada SI, Hayakawa H, Nguyen TTN, Haseda Y, Soga T, Matsushita H, Ikeda H, Akiyoshi K, Harada N.
October 2024
Division of Stem Cell and Molecular Medicine, Center for Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
13 September 2024 | Auditorium, IMSUT
Organizers: Koji Kobiyama, Cevayir Coban
Review Article
Takeshi Inoue, Yoshihiro Baba, Tomohiro Kurosaki
→Share Link (Free Access until 9 Oct 2024)
August 2024
Kaku Y, Uriu K, Okumura K; Genotype to Phenotype Japan (G2P-Japan) Consortium; Ito J, Sato K.
The Lancet Infectious Diseases Relevant posts on X
August 2024
20 August 2024 | Auditorium, IMSUT
1 - 2 November 2024 | Shirokanedai, Tokyo
July 2024
Eisfeld AJ, Biswas A, Guan L, Gu C, Maemura T, Trifkovic S, Wang T, Babujee L, Dahn R, Halfmann PJ, Barnhardt T, Neumann G, Suzuki Y, Thompson A, Swinford AK, Dimitrov KM, Poulsen K, Kawaoka Y.
News Release
Raw milk is risky, but airborne transmission of H5N1 from cow's milk is inefficient in mammals
Jully 2024
Click here for photos and details about Flash Talk Awards and Poster Awards.
Date/Time: Friday, 12 July 2024, 16:00 – 17:00 (JST)
Place: Auditorium, 1st building, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
June 2024
AM 10:00 - 11:30, Friday, 21 June 2024
Auditorium, Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
Guan L, Eisfeld AJ, Pattinson D, Gu C, Biswas A, Maemura T, Trifkovic S, Babujee L, Presler R Jr, Dahn R, Halfmann PJ, Barnhardt T, Neumann G, Thompson A, Swinford AK, Dimitrov KM, Poulsen K, Kawaoka Y.
New England Journal of Medicine
May 2024
Setoguchi R, Sengiku T, Kono H, Kawakami E, Kubo M, Yamamoto T, Hori S
May 2024
Inoue T, Matsumoto Y, Kawai C, Ito M, Nada S, Okada M, Kurosaki T
Journal of Experimental Medicine
May 2024
May 2024
Professor Takao Someya
Department of Electrical Engineering and Information Systems, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo
May 2024
April 2024
April 2024
18 March 2024
March 2024
March 2024
Nakamura T, Ohyama C, Sakamoto M, Toma T, Tateishi H, Matsuo M, Chirifu M, Ikemizu S, Morioka H, Fujita M, Inoue J, Yamagata Y
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
March 2024
February 2024
Goto M, Takahashi H, Yoshida R, Itamiya T, Nakano M, Nagafuchi Y, Harada H, Shimizu T, Maeda M, Kubota A, Toda T, Hatano H, Sugimori Y, Kawahata K, Yamamoto K, Shoda H, Ishigaki K, Ota M, Okamura T, Fujio K.
February 2024
February 2024
February 2024
February 2024
January 2024
Date and Time: 10 January 2024, 9:30 - 11:30
January 2024
Date/Time: Thursday, 18 January 2024 16:00 -
Place: Auditorium, 1st building, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
January 2024
© The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institu
Professors Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman have been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their significant contributions to the development of mRNA vaccines.
Professor Kawaoka, director, introduces UTOPIA on YouTube
In Japanese with English subtitle
Subscribe to our channel on YouTube.
May 2023
Journalist Meets Scientist - Protect People from Infectious Diseases (UTOPIA Special Interview)
Takako Zenba, the host of TBS's 'Houdou Tokushu' , meets Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka, a virologist and the Director of the UTOPIA Center at the University of Tokyo,
Ms Zenba is an alumna of the University of Tokyo. This insightful dialogue was recorded at Shirokanedai Campus of the University of Tokyo on 30 October 2023.