We Are Tomodachi New Year 2016

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191. Visiting an elementary school in Ghana in 2004. All of the children regularly take Mectizan®, which they know by name. 2. With his mentor Professor Max Tishler (right) at Wesleyan University in 1971. 3. Collecting soil samples for research purposes, as he does wherever he goes. 4. The bacterium that produces avermectin, discovered by Professor Omura in soil from Kawana, Shizuoka Prefecture. (© The Kitasato Institute)1234approach that had not yet been adopted in Japan’s scientific research circles, namely, to conduct research in cooperation with business. He had always declared his desire to conduct research that would help people, and after returning to Japan he applied the approach he learned in the United States for this purpose, becoming a pioneer in the development of industry-university tie-ups in Japan.　Professor Omura’s socially minded posture as a researcher has extended into other parts of his life as well. He drew on the tremendous royalties he received from sales of ivermectin and other products to provide large-scale funding for research at the Kitasato Institute while serving as its vice-president. And he has remembered his hometown of Nirasaki in Yamanashi Prefecture, using his own money to develop a hot spring for local residents and to build an art museum that he has donated to the city.　So far, Professor Omura’s research team has discovered almost 500 compounds produced by microbes that have led to the development of pharmaceuticals and other useful chemicals. Believing that microorganisms may hold the key to defeating diseases that remain intractable, he continues to work today on projects for creating drugs from naturally produced substances. “These projects increasingly require the power of youth,” Professor Omura says, and he devotes himself to training young researchers at the Kitasato Institute and Kitasato University. He is looking ahead avidly to exploiting the unlimited possibilities that future research on microbes will create for the benefit of all.

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