THE UEHARA INTERNATIONAL SYMPOSIUM 2023

　On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I am pleased to announce that the Uehara International Symposium 2026 “Innovative Medical Research Based on Human Biology” sponsored by the Uehara Memorial Foundation will be held in Tokyo from July 13 to 14, 2026.

　Medical research deals with the human body, yet in-depth investigation in this field often faces significant challenges, including ethical concerns and limited access to human materials. In recent years, however, remarkable advances in biomolecular measurement technologies, along with the development of new research platforms such as human organoids and organ-on-a-chip systems, have begun to overcome these barriers. Additionally, technologies for extracting critical insights from big data generated by cohort studies and medical records have also advanced rapidly. As a result, the field is now transitioning from traditional medical research that heavily relied on suboptimal model systems to a new stage-one that more accurately reflects human biology.

　At this turning point of medical research, the Uehara Memorial Foundation has launched the 12th Special Research Project "Innovative Medical Research Based on Human Biology" in 2023 and has been supporting twenty Japanese scientists for three years. Their activities cover development of cutting-edge technologies for profiling and imaging healthy and disease cells, in-vitro reconstitution and analysis of physiological and disease processes, and use of big data and in-silico modeling for understanding healthy and disease states of the human body.

　In this international symposium, we invite nine world-leading scientists from overseas and twenty Uehara Research Grant recipients from Japan, in the hope that the meeting will catalyze sharing of the ideas and most recent outcomes among speakers and all attendees. We further hope that young Japanese scholars will be stimulated by the cutting-edge studies and active discussions. We hope that all attendees will enjoy this forum.