Microbiology

Division of microbiology has been conducting research on emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases that is caused by bacteria, viruses, and protozoa. Especially we focus on blood-borne infectious diseases, such as human babesiosis and hepatitis C. Babesiosis is a tick-borne zoonotic disease caused by intraerythrocytic protozoa, Babesia species.  Although there are more than 100 species, only a limited number of Babesia spp. have known to infect humans. One of the species to infect human is Babesia microti. Dr. Saito-Ito, the former professor of our laboratory, reported the first Japanese case. The patient was infected through blood transfusion from an asymptomatic donor. One of our aim is to develop new testing and diagnostic methods to eliminate infection due to blood transfusion. We are also interested in the effects of genetic diversity of microorganism on infectivity, pathogenicity and antimicrobial susceptibility.
We have responsibilities to educate the students to become pharmacists. We give them the lectures titled “Welcome to Science of infection”, “Science of Infection I (Bacterial, Fungal and Parasitic Infections)”, “Science of Infection II (Viral Infections and Prion Diseases)”, “Infectious Disease Chemotherapy”, “Infectious Control Science” and “Practical training in pharmaceutical hygiene”. Our hope is to contribute to develop pharmacists who have the ability to make sound judgments and can take independent actions with solid understanding of the treatment and prevention of infectious diseases.