About our university

The Center for Community Medicine was established in April 2004 to provide education, research, and medical care needed to develop community medicine.
The Center has seven divisions (Community Medicine, Public Health, General Medicine, Community Health Policy and Management, Community Medicine Support, Oriental Medicine, and Human Resources Development for Community Medicine) and seeks to function as an actual center of community medicine in Japan to systematize and publicize community medicine.

The Center for Molecular Medicine was established in 1998 as a core institute for advanced medical science and research. Since its founding, it has received strong support from government initiatives, including MEXT’s High-Tech Research Center Development Program, the Strategic Research Foundation Grant-aided Project for Private Universities, and the Private University Research Branding Project. These programs have helped build a robust research infrastructure, enabling the Center to serve as a hub for interdisciplinary research and to produce numerous high-impact findings both in Japan and internationally.
The Center currently consists of eight divisions: Molecular Pathogenesis, Emerging Medicine for Integrated Therapeutics, Gene Therapeutics, Antiaging Medicine, Regenerative Medicine, Inflammation Research, Bioconvergence, and Cardiovascular and Genetic Research. Each division contributes its expertise while working collaboratively to advance comprehensive, cross-disciplinary research. In addition to active collaboration with basic and clinical departments of the School of Medicine, the Center also plays a key role in graduate education, contributing significantly to the training of future medical researchers and scientifically minded health care professionals.

The Center for Information was established in April 2003 in order to systematically promote the use of information technology and to encourage and improve education, research, medical care, and community medicine. The computer room and the educational server room were created within the Center in September 2003 and have been utilized as the hub of computerized education. The Center aims to upgrade its network infrastructure, to promote information technology throughout the campus, and to facilitate communication with University alumni all across Japan. The Institutional Research (IR) Division was established in 2016 and is promoting the compilation and analysis of various types of data, mainly related to education, on campus.

The library, located on the second and third floors of the Community Medicine Information and Training Center, effectively collects and provides materials and information necessary for education, research, and medical care as well as for lifelong education and community medicine for University alumni. The library is also open to the local community and medical personnel. Therefore, in addition to the standard facilities necessary for a medical library, the Library has a media studio and other facilities that provide comprehensive materials and information.

The RI Center was established in 1974 as a joint-use facility for experiments involving radiation. In 1987, an additional RI facility was created within the Center for Experimental Medicine to support medical and life science research involving unsealed radioisotopes (15 nuclides). The facilities are also available for research activities involving irradiation of small animals and cells, as well as recombinant DNA experiments. Proper handling of radioisotopes is essential to ensure the safety of the facilities and environment and to prevent radiation hazards to workers. The Office of Radioisotope Management oversees safe handling practices, provides education, and manages radiation exposure in compliance with laws and regulations.

The Center for Experimental Medicine was established in 1987 as a facility for the centralized management of laboratory animals suitable for advanced medical research. The Center moved to a new building, completed in 2018, and introduced individually ventilated cages (IVCS) to strictly maintain a specific pathogen-free (SPF) environment for laboratory animals and improve usability for researchers while enhancing animal welfare. In addition to the development of genetically modified or genome-edited animals, which have become essential to recent medical education and research, the Center has been involved in the preservation of biological resources such as embryos and gametes, serving as a hub for scientific and ethical animal experimentation.

The Medical Simulation Center (Jsim47) was opened in April 2008 to help students acquire necessary skills and abilities prior to participating in clinical training. Jsim47 supports clinical education for students, the acquisition of skills by medical personnel at the Hospital, and community medicine. Jsim47 is equipped with training simulators for emergency resuscitation and for diagnosis and examination, as well as an easy-to-use environment. Jsim47 is also engaged in the development of more effective and efficient training methods and simulators.

TThe Center for Development of Advanced Medical Technology, also referred to as the “Pig Center,” was established in 2009 to support medical research and surgical training using swine. The Center is one of the leading large-animal experimentation facilities in Japan, equipped with swine-only breeding facilities, operating rooms, MRI and CT scanners, intensive care units (ICUs), sterile units, and a cell processing lab, capable of long-term swine management. The Center introduced genome-editing technology ahead of similar facilities and has proactively produced genetically modified swine.
The Center has been certified by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) as a National Joint Usage/Research Center since 2017. The Center received the highest S rating both in interim and end-of-term evaluations, and its certification as a national center was renewed for another six years as of 2023. The Center will continue to make its facilities highly accessible, thereby promoting the exploration of new interdisciplinary fields and the development of human resources.

The Regional Clinical Education Center (RCEC) is an education and research institute established in August 2015. In cooperation with affiliated hospitals, RCEC promotes and coordinates regional medicine, an educational system for medical students and residents to learn common diseases, and medical research.

The University’s Data Science Center was established in April 2017, with a mission to collect and manage various types of biological, medical, and health care data and conduct research using those data. The Center provides student education in using big data as well as supporting investigators who lack experience in handling big data.
Specific research topics include health care analysis using health insurance claims data, analysis of ECG waveform data using AI systems, and analysis of medical documents using generative AI.

The Center provides physicians and researchers with support for career development and employment. The child nursing room “Airisu” in the child care division provides care for sick children, temporary childcare, and night childcare, thereby supporting work balanced with childcare. The services have been available to all staff at Jichi Medical University and Jichi Medical University Hospital since 2012. Care for sick children has also been available to residents and workers in Shimotsuke who are not University staff. The Center holds work-life balance seminars and periodic exchanges for the next generation of physicians and researchers to facilitate exchanges among young physicians and researchers and graduate school students and to promote their career development and research activities. The Center also hosts the Jichi Joy Café and periodic meetings to share views and opinions concerning working patterns. The Center also has advisors who provide consulting concerning issues in continuing one’s career. In 2020, the Center was registered with the National Diversity Network, which aims to foster gender equality at universities, research institutes, companies, etc. and to develop researchers. In response to working pattern reforms and more diverse needs, the Center provides enhanced support and activities regardless of gender or childcare status.

The Jichi Training Center for Nurses Pertaining to Specified Medical Acts was established in August 2015, based on designation as a research institution under the system to train nurses to provide certain forms of medical care established by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, which took effect on October 1, 2015. Japan is anticipated to have a social structure in which each senior will be supported by about two younger Japanese persons by 2025, when the baby boomer generation becomes 75 years of age or older. In preparation for this scenario, the Center conducts training to foster nurses who are able to playing their roles as key persons in team medicine, having advanced and specialized knowledge and skills necessary to provide certain forms of medical care based on prior instructions (written procedures) from physicians.

The Open Innovation Center was established in 2018 in order for the University to produce novel innovations. The Center seeks to identify multiple examples of promising research on campus, to initiate large-scale joint research projects that involve companies and other external organizations, to acquire necessary external funding, and to manage the projects in a centralized manner. The Center also provides support for patent filing and patenting and for marketing, allowing society to build on research results. The Center provides open labs at relatively low prices for use by startups originating from the University.

The Center for Gene Therapy Research (CGTR) was established in October 2018 by bringing together gene therapy researchers working in different divisions of the University, ranging from basic medicine to clinical practice. The Center undertakes the development and research of gene therapy including genome editing technology at the University, which encompass refractory diseases such as genetic diseases and cancer, and it pursues expedited translational research from basic medicine to clinical applications in order to lead gene therapy research in Japan. The Center was selected as a central site for the expediting program for regenerative medicine, cell therapy, and gene therapy of the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) in 2023, thereby functioning as a research and clinical site for gene therapy in Japan.