This center was established in April 2014, in order to find promising research seeds in the field of basic science and promote them into full-fledged translational research in close collaboration with Tokyo Metropolitan Hospitals and other medical institutions. This will help findings of basic science develop into novel clinical diagnostics and therapeutics. Through these activities, we want to return our scientific achievements for the benefic of patients. The center consists of two divisions, Translational Research Planning and Management Office (TR Office) and Laboratory of Neuropathology (LNP).
TR Office provides the support necessary for researchers to bring basic research to the clinical trial stage. Activities include consultation on statistical analyses, assistance in pharmaceutical affairs and preparations of official documents required for translational researches. TR Office is also in charge of the ethical boards and the management of human specimens used for research involving human subjects.
LNP has more than 5,000 sets of human autopsied brain slides with a wide variety of human neurological diseases. In recent years, we have been scanning these slides with virtual slide instruments. Using those digital data and their derivatives, LNP constructs digital neuropathology database which contribute to the research and medical society through remote assistance on pathological analyses and collaboration with neuroradiology as well as through e-learning of basic knowledge for medical students and doctors.