／Research Collaboration Center for Infectious Diseases  About Research Collaboration Center

  Until recently, it was believed that infectious diseases could be conquered by developing chemotherapy regimens and vaccines; however, the recent worldwide emergence of new infectious diseases and the re-emergence of infectious diseases once considered to be under control have seriously challenged this notion. Since many infectious diseases spread rapidly across national borders, it is clear that they cannot be controlled by the efforts of individual countries.

To overcome this, Osaka University founded the Research Collaboration Center on Emerging and Re-emerging Infections (RCC-ERI) at the Thai National Institute of Health (NIH), Department of Medical Sciences, Ministry of Public Health of Thailand, in 2005. The program is now in the fourth phase (2020–2025) and is sponsored by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, which succeeded to the second phase program named “the Japan Initiative for Global Research Network on Infectious Diseases (J-GRID).”

In addition to basic and applied research into emerging and re-emerging infections, we aim to develop human resources. We also aim to establish an effective system that would (i) provide information that would help prevent the spread of emerging and re-emerging infections, and (ii) promptly activate a variety of countermeasures upon the emergence of such a disease, including the development of therapeutics and/or vaccines. Finally, we wish to enter into collaboration with laboratories from nations that neighbor Thailand so that we can be on the “frontline,” with the capacity to respond quickly to the global spread of infectious disease.