Research Activities in the Department of Medical Engineering

The Department of Medical Engineering is dedicated to the research and educational activities to fulfill its mission as educating medical professionals in medical engineering under the diploma policy and curriculum policy, that is, "research and education aiming for fostering professionals competent in comprehensive resolving capacity based upon a wide field of knowledge and vision in clinical engineering, which can be attained by wearing the basic knowledge of medical science and engineering." For this reason, the Faculty of the Department of Medical Engineering is composed of the two areas; PhDs in engineering-based clinical medicine, and mainly MDs in medical sciences and clinical medicine. To summarize the research activities at the Department of Medical Engineering, the authors will describe the overview of research activities being performed in the Department of Medical Engineering Fields, by dividing into 1) Research in Biomedical Engineering Fields, and 2) Research in Medical Science and Clinical Engineering Fields

Research Promotion in Nursing, Physiotherapy, Occupational Therapy and Medical Engineering - Appeal and Recommendation to the Colleague -

[Summary] Despite of the severe situations of insufficient money, labor, time, and communication, we want to promote the research activity in our university to the level of major institutions. The first step we propose is to acquire the external research grants from public resources. The specific proposal is described in grant application to increase the probability of successful adoption of the grant from the Ministry of Education and Science of Japan

Phenotypic Dissection of a <i>Plasmodium</i>-Refractory Strain of Malaria Vector <i>Anopheles stephensi</i>: The Reduced Susceptibility to <i>P. berghei</i> and <i>P. yoelii</i>

<div><p>Anopheline mosquitoes are the major vectors of human malaria. Parasite-mosquito interactions are a critical aspect of disease transmission and a potential target for malaria control. Current investigations into parasite-mosquito interactions frequently assume that genetically resistant and susceptible mosquitoes exist in nature. Therefore, comparisons between the <i>Plasmodium</i> susceptibility profiles of different mosquito species may contribute to a better understanding of vectorial capacity. <i>Anopheles stephensi</i> is an important malaria vector in central and southern Asia and is widely used as a laboratory model of parasite transmission due to its high susceptibility to <i>Plasmodium</i> infection. In the present study, we identified a rodent malaria-refractory strain of <i>A. stephensi mysorensis</i> (Ehime) by comparative study of infection susceptibility. A very low number of oocysts develop in Ehime mosquitoes infected with <i>P. berghei</i> and <i>P. yoelii</i>, as determined by evaluation of developed oocysts on the basal lamina. A stage-specific study revealed that this reduced susceptibility was due to the impaired formation of ookinetes of both <i>Plasmodium</i> species in the midgut lumen and incomplete crossing of the midgut epithelium. There were no apparent abnormalities in the exflagellation of male parasites in the ingested blood or the maturation of oocysts after the rounding up of the ookinetes. Overall, these results suggest that invasive-stage parasites are eliminated in both the midgut lumen and epithelium in Ehime mosquitoes by strain-specific factors that remain unknown. The refractory strain newly identified in this report would be an excellent study system for investigations into novel parasite-mosquito interactions in the mosquito midgut.</p></div