Under the title, "From Nanometer- to Centimeter-Sized Objects: What We Are Studying at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences", the Institute hosted its ninth series of open lectures at Kyoto University's Clock Tower Centennial Hall.
The lectures were presented by two members of the Institute: Professor Norio Nakatsuji and Associate Professor Nobuko Hosokawa.
In the first lecture, Professor Nakatsuji reported on the state of ongoing research aimed at establishing medical applications of pluripotent cells (ES and iPS cells) and efforts to develop technologies that would enable safe and cost-effective use of these cells for therapeutic and drug-discovery purposes.
The lecture by Associate Professor Hosokawa, on the other hand, focused on various intracellular mechanisms involved in maintaining protein quality, and highlighted the roles played by molecular chaperones in promoting the correct folding of proteins (higher-order structure).
The event drew more than 300 people from the general public, including high school students, who eagerly listened to the lectures and asked many questions during the Q&A session that followed the presentations. In response to the questionnaire survey given at the conclusion of the event, many attendees expressed hope that regenerative medicine would someday be put into widespread practice, while high school students left comments such as "I want to do what I can to help solve the problems facing the researchers today, and play a part in the establishment of stem cell technologies" and "I was fascinated by the lecture on higher-order protein structures".
 Professor Nakatsuji giving a lecture |  Associate Professor Hosokawa giving a lecture |
 The Q&A session | |
