Upcoming Events
UTOPIA Seminar
Combatting tuberculosis and publishing in medical journals
ERIC J. RUBIN, MD, PHD
Editor-in-Chief, The New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM Group
Editor-in-Chief, The New England Journal of Medicine, NEJM Group
Date/Time: Friday, 12 July 2024, 16:00 – 17:30 (JST)
Place: Auditorium, 1st building, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
● A controlled human infection model could greatly enhance our ability to produce new tuberculosis vaccines. How could that be done safely and still be informative?
● The New England Journal of Medicine publishes many studies that immediately affect medical practice and health policy. How does the decision-making process work and how does that affect you as an author?
About the Speaker:
Eric J. Rubin, M.D., Ph.D., joined the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) and NEJM Group as Editor-in-Chief in September 2019, taking on the responsibility for oversight of all editorial content and policies.
Dr. Rubin is an Associate Physician specializing in infectious disease at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is a Professor in the Department of Immunology and Infectious Diseases at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. He serves on several scientific advisory boards to groups interested in infectious disease therapeutics. Dr. Rubin has also previously served as the Associate Editor for Infectious Disease at the New England Journal of Medicine as well as an editor for several basic science journals including PLoS Pathogens, Tuberculosis, and mBio.
Organizer: Yoshihiro Kawaoka
Past Events
The Second UTOPIA Symposium was held from June 19 to 20 in Fuchu.
Click here for photos and details about Flash Talk Awards and Poster Awards.
UTOPIA Welcomes Representatives from HHS/ASPR, CDC, US Embassy, and Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
On 18 March 2024 UTOPIA was honored to welcomd a group of representatives from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)/ Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response (ASPR), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)'s East Asia and Pacific regional office, the US Embassy, and Japan's Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.
The visit began with a short speech by Ms Dawn O‘Connell of HHS/ASPR. This was followed by a presentation on the "Japan Initiative for World-leading Vaccine Research and Development Centers " by Professor Ken Ishii, Deputy Director of UTOPIA, the flagship Center of the Initiative. The presentation was followed by a tour of the Biobank Japan facility, which is affiliated with the supporting institution at UTokyo. The tour was led by Professors Matsuda and Morisaki.
Visit by GLEAP: Students of Seoul National University's College of Natural Sciences
Date and Time: 10 January 2024, 9:30 - 11:30
Number of Participants: 9 students, accompanied by 1 supervising professor
Program
Welcome Remarks
Professor Jun-ichiro Inoue
Presentations
Research at the UTOPIA Center: Under the Japan Initiative for World-leading Vaccine Research and Development Centers
Professor Yoshihiro Kawaoka (via ZOOM)
Vaccine R & D in UTOPIA/Japan: for 100 Days Mission
Professor Ken Ishii
Lab Tour
Dr. Ryuta Uraki
Presentations by Young Researchers
Hide and Seek: The Herpes Simplex Virus's Strategy to Escape from the Human Immune System
Dr. Ayano Fukui
Virus Research from Cellular to Global Level
Professor Yuki Furuse
UTOPIA Seminar
Date/Time: Thursday, 18 January 2024 16:00 -
Place: Auditorium, 1st building, The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo
Topic: Antibody responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination
Speaker: Florian Krammer, Department of Microbiology, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, New York, USA
It is thought that mRNA-based vaccine-induced immunity to severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) wanes quickly, based mostly on short-term studies. We analyzed the kinetics and durability of the humoral responses to SARS-CoV-2 infection and vaccination using >8,000 longitudinal samples collected over a three-year period in New York City. Upon primary immunization, participants with pre-existing immunity mounted higher antibody responses faster and achieved higher steady-state antibody titers than naïve individuals. Antibody kinetics were characterized by two phases: an initial rapid decay followed by a stabilization phase with very slow decay. Booster vaccination equalized the differences in antibody levels between participants with and without hybrid immunity, but the antibody titers reached decreased with each successive antigen exposure. Breakthrough infections increased antibodies to similar titers as an additional vaccine dose in naïve individuals. Our study provides strong evidence that SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses are long- lasting, with initial waning followed by stabilization. In addition, this talk will also focus on the breadth of the induced antibody responses beyond SARS-CoV-2, mucosal immune responses, the functionality of non-neutralizing antibodies and development of novel vectored SARS-CoV-2 vaccines.
Organizer: Yoshihiro Kawaoka
Kei Sato
The Institute of Medical Science, The University of Tokyo 
Wendy Barclay
Virology, Infectious Disease, Imperial College London @The 70th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society for Virology
Symposium:
Innovation in vaccine development: Perspectives from global research leaders
Innovation in vaccine development: Perspectives from global research leaders
26 September 2023, Sendai
Ralph S Baric
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 
Yoshihiro Kawaoka
National Center for Global Health and MedicineThe University of Tokyo
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Keiji Itaka
Center for Infectious Disease Education and Research (CiDER), Osaka UniversityInstitute of Biomaterials and Bioengineering, Tokyo Medical and Dental University
Science for delivering vaccine in 100 days
3 - 6 September 2023
Chair: Ken J. Ishii
First UTOPIA Symposium
10 - 11 June 2023, Nagano (+Web)
UTOPIA International Kick-off Meeting
29 - 30 March 2023, Web
UTOPIA Kick-off Meeting
5 - 6 November 2022, Tokyo