The Singapore-Japan Joint Forum on Emerging Concepts in Microbiology was jointly held by RIKEN, Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Diseases and the National University of Singapore (NUS) on 15 and 16 November. Almost 200 participants, including the Japanese ambassador to Singapore, Yoichi Suzuki, NUS Vice-Provost John Wong and RIKEN Executive Director Maki Kawai attended the event.
This forum addressed the growing demand for further research on emerging and reemerging infectious diseases. The key research themes included disease pathogenesis, susceptibility and control, and advances in the identification of diseases and the development of therapeutic treatments.
In the past decade, the outbreak of SARS and the influenza pandemic of 2009 have brought about calls for greater sharing of information and collaboration between nations in order to more effectively combat infectious diseases on a global scale. In an effort to promote collaborative research between countries, the RIKEN Center of Research Networks for Infectious Diseases (CRNID), headed by Yoshiyuki Nagai, was established in 2005 as the headquarters of the Japan Initiative for Global Research on Infectious Diseases (J-GRID), and today is a key research hub connecting collaborative centers in Singapore and the rest of Asia, and Africa, to a wider research network. At the November forum, Nagai and other researchers from Japan and Singapore presented their latest research results. Participants at the forum showed an avid interest in the poster sessions and engaged in active discussion with the presenters.
This forum not only marks the growing partnership between Japan and Singapore in the ongoing research of infectious diseases, but also reaffirms ties between RIKEN and its fellow research institutions in Singapore.
