In this program, we aim to develop young, world-class researchers who will be armed with deep knowledge and research capacity in both microbiology and immunology. We will also invite to the program promising young researchers from developing countries where infectious diseases remain serious health threats and critical social issues. Through educational guidance to these future leaders of such countries, we intend to help establish a research base that can be utilized to overcome infectious disease in each country. Finally, we will promote international interaction in these research fields and make a concerted effort to tackle issues of infectious disease. To implement these objectives, the program facilitators will create and implement a combined educational program in microbiology and immunology. In the following paragraphs, each of three programs is described in detail.

1) The combined program in microbiology and immunology.
Setting up a new graduate school lecture/seminar series targeted towards graduate students/young researchers and given by world-renowned researchers both from Japanese research institutions and from abroad.
By introducing invitational lectures given by specialists on a regular basis, we will provide unparalleled opportunities for graduate students/young researchers to learn cutting-edge knowledge in microbiology and immunology. In conjunction with graduate school research departments, these lectures will be open to the public, including students and researchers from other universities. Attendance at the lectures will be mandatory for graduate students at Osaka University.
In addition, we will hold a research report meeting once every three months. Members of all laboratories in this program are to participate. At each meeting, a graduate student or a young researcher from each of three participating laboratories will give a 30 minute presentation to report the current events in each respective laboratory. In this way, the graduate students/young researchers will be able to polish their presentation skills. Attendance at these report meetings will be mandatory and regarded as a requirement course for graduate students so that they can learn broad and advanced knowledge both in microbiology and immunology. Moreover, we will offer a series of seminars targeting health care workers and medical doctors on a regular basis, so as to compensate for the nationwide shortage of infectious disease specialists, and the lack of knowledge regarding infectious diseases in general households.

2) The research/education program in microbiology and immunology
Providing opportunities for short-term internships at leading research laboratories worldwide, and accepting interns from these laboratories.
We will select several graduate students/young researchers who have demonstrated excellent achievement in this program and obtain short-term internships (one to two years) for them at foreign laboratories known for excellence in microbiology and immunology. This program will provide unparalleled training opportunities for young scientists in terms of their research advancement and will help them cultivate an international point of view. In particular, we will send young microbiologists to immunology laboratories, and young immunologists to microbiology laboratories. In this way, these scientists will be provided with the opportunity to learn knowledge and technology from both fields. Also, we will invite researchers from foreign laboratories renowned for their academic achievements and excellence to come to Osaka University, in order to invigorate the laboratories participating in this program. We are in the process of contemplating joint research projects and exchange programs with the Systems Biology Research Institute and Harvard University in the United States, Oxford University in the UK, and the Molecular Biology Research Institute in France. Finally, we encourage graduate students to attend International academic conferences as frequently as possible in order to gain broad and international viewpoints, and we offer financial support covering the entire expense of traveling costs and registration fees.

3) The international cooperative research/education program
Recruiting the most promising researchers from developing countries where infectious diseases are still a major concern.
We will invite distinguished scientists from developing countries where infectious diseases are a daily concern and crucial social issue, and provide special education so that these researchers can become active facilitators in the fight against infectious diseases upon return to their native countries. Approximately five graduate students/young researchers from developing countries are given short-term internships (one to two years) through this program in relevant laboratories for further education. Currently, six exchange students are studying at the graduate school of medicine, and five researchers from Korea and one each from Egypt, Thailand, and Costa Rica, are working at the Research Institute of Microbial Diseases. Some of the interns who have studied in this program are now actively involved in education as professors in their native countries. Encouraged by these successful outcomes, we will expand this program by actively recruiting and accepting researchers from these countries and improving the education program. The Research Institute of Microbial Diseases has been engaged in a research exchange project with Kinshasa University, in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and in joint research on HIV with the National Institute of Public Heath in Thailand. We will further expand international cooperative projects with these countries. Osaka University officially instituted a branch at Mahidol University in Thailand in 2002; this branch will be our active base for accelerating these efforts to meet educational needs in developing countries.