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The primary goal is to clarify the interaction between the environment and genetic factors in the onset of diseases. Environmental factors include weather factors, physical factors such as radiation, chemical substances such as persistent organic pollutants, nutritional disorders, labor environment factors, etc., and we analyze the relationship between them and health problems, using chemical analysis, environmental risk assessment, epidemiology, genetic analysis, field surveys, model calculation, and various other methods. The second goal is to translate the findings obtained through the elucidation of the mechanism to the practice of disease prevention through environmental management, modification, and drug discovery.
In our lives, many environments such as lifestyle, nutrition, environmental pollution, and occupation cause health problems. We are evaluating the exposure of environmental pollutants and examining their effects on the body. Risk assessments are conducted in collaboration with various cohort studies for concerned pollutants. As physical factors, we are also investigating radiation exposure due to the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident and lifestyle-related disease risks associated with evacuation. We also conduct basic research on other diseases related to lifestyle-related diseases including diabetes. To elucidate the influence of environmental factors from the aspect of genetic predisposition, we investigate relationship between meteorological environment and infantile episodic limb pain and its causative gene SCN11A. In addition, we are conducting moyamoya disease research that causes cerebrovascular disease at young age, with its susceptibility gene RNF213, from the viewpoint of preventive medicine by genomic and metagenomic analysis and environmental factor. This disease is frequently found in East Asian population, and we conduct collaborative studies on various vascular diseases.