WebsEdge/Health

Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences - Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Niigata University was established in 1870, while its Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology launched in 1966. The division includes 25 physicians as well as 34 graduate students and residents, and partners with 39 other hospitals. The division aims to train doctors to become skilled general gastroenterologists as well as clinician scientists. The division has two missions: the development of diagnosis methods and therapy for intractable progressive digestive system diseases; and the development of diagnosis and treatment methods for currently “undiagnosable diseases" using genomics and iPS cell biology technologies. This focus is exemplified in a clinical trial of cell therapy using allogenic adipose tissue-derived mesenchymal stem cell (MSC) to decompensated liver cirrhosis patients. This is the first trial of its kind in Japan and will provide a new therapeutic option to patients suffering from liver cirrhosis. Researchers are also working to develop next generation gene therapy and exsome therapy for Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) and liver cirrhosis. The division is also doing unique research into Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) as well analysis of the impact of the environment in space using the fish Medaka as an animal model. This project makes them the first people to launch a Medaka to space to analyse change in its gene expression.