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MIURA Masayuki Dean

The University of Tokyo's Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences has its origins in 1873 with the five-year pharmaceutical program in the First University District Medical School, the precursor of the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine; it will celebrate its 150th anniversary in 2023. In 1958, the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Tokyo became independent from the Faculty of Medicine and began a new chapter in its history.

The Faculty and Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences is one of the smallest departments in the University of Tokyo with about 800 members. However, it is one of the largest departments specializing in basic research in the life sciences, and it is a department with a strong sense of unity that encourages interaction among laboratories. Graduates of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, which emphasizes basic research, are leading experts in their fields in academia and key players in research and development in pharmaceutical and other companies.

The Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences has two departments: the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and the Department of Pharmacy. The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences focuses on the training of teachers and researchers at universities, national and public research institutes, and researchers at pharmaceutical companies. About 10% of the students in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences are in the Department of Pharmacy and study to become certified pharmacists while doing basic research. Our educational policy is to nurture advanced pharmacists who can respond to the social demands for advanced medical care, the separation of prescribing and dispensing, and proper use of medicines.

Pharmaceutical Sciences is a field of study that is concerned with overcoming diseases using small- and medium-size organic compounds, but in recent years, drug discovery using new methods or modalities that incorporate proteins and nucleic acids has also developed. What makes new methods of drug discovery possible is basic research to understand the biological phenomena related to diseases in molecular terms and to create techniques to manipulate these phenomena with compounds. Living organisms are composed of organic materials, and the more we learn about the behavior and structure of biomolecules that have been refined through evolution, the more surprising they become.

Pharmaceutical science is an academic field that aims to overcome diseases and create a healthy society by learning from living organisms and biomolecules, designing compounds, and creating drugs. Since the founding of the department, the spirit of placing the highest priority on basic research has been handed down from generation to generation. Today, research and education are conducted in the fields of organic chemistry, biophysics, molecular life sciences, and social pharmacy.

We are faced with infectious diseases and a super-aging society that we have never experienced before. At a time when society is facing difficult health issues, we believe that it is necessary to promote basic research that asks a variety of questions about life and disease. There are both necessity and randomness in the mechanisms of biological activities that organisms have acquired over their long history. For example, there is no single cause of cell abnormalities and no single mechanism for correcting cell abnormalities in diseases, so it is necessary to explore from multiple perspectives.

Therefore, basic research aimed at expanding knowledge will lead to the discovery of unexpected molecules and reaction mechanisms involved in the pathogenesis of diseases, as well as breakthroughs in the development of compounds based on new theories for the manipulation of cellular functions. We will continue to contribute to the creation of a healthy society in harmony with nature through research and education in the Pharmaceutical Sciences.

MIURA Masayuki
Dean
Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences
Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences
The University of Tokyo

The University of Tokyo

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Medical Innovation Initiative
One-Stop Sharing Facility Center for Future Drug Discoveries Drug Discovery Initiative, The University of Tokyo
UTokyo Alumni The University of Tokyo Foundation

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