The Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Medical Science (RINSHOKEN) was established 30 years ago to clarify the pathogenesis of various life-threatening diseases, including cancer and infection, and to contribute to their prevention and therapy. In 1999, RINSHOKEN was merged with Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neuroscience and Tokyo Institute of Psychiatry, which were set up around the same time as RINSHOKEN, to become what it is today, Tokyo Metropolitan Organization for Medical Research. An institute for research in life sciences is essential for protecting the public’s health in the Tokyo metropolis that has one of the world’s largest populations. Doctors perform a great service to protect people’s “current health” through medical care while life scientists have an important mission to protect people’s “future health” by researching the cause and the prevention of diseases. From the medical perspective, human history has been one of fighting diseases. People now live twice as long as they did a mere few hundred years ago. One of the major contributions is surely the improvement in the food/nutrition situation. But the most important factor is the drastic decline in the death rate from disease. Today, in the 21st century as our society ages, disease in the elderly is rapidly increasing. To live longer only to suffer from disease is simply the birth of tragedy. It is an urgent task to construct a society where people can live longer in good health. To this end, it is essential to determine the causes of diseases and to promote the preventive therapies of those diseases. From the past to the present, science has continued to confront emerging infectious diseases and unexplained incurable diseases. We have to take all possible measures to conquer them in the future as well. Sustained development in basic research should be of the utmost importance. Current life science is developing at a speed that humans have never experienced before, as symbolized by genome sequencing. RINSHOKEN, one of the world’s best research institutes, will continue its keen efforts to solve the mystery of life, which will ultimately lead to the discovery of the causes of diseases and protect the health of people in Tokyo.
Keiji Tanaka, Director
