Our History

In April 2018, a new RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences* (IMS) was formed through the merger of the previous IMS and the Division of Genomic Technologies (DGT), which was part of the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies.

RIKEN IMS was established in 2013 with the aim of contributing to future medical care through innovative medical science. The center’s roots, however, stretch back to the start of the century when the SNP Research Center (renamed the Center for Genomic Medicine (CGM) in 2008) began its work investigating the relationship between the human genome and multifactorial diseases in 2000, and when the Research Center for Allergy and Immunology (RCAI) began comprehensively elucidating the immune system in 2001. Under the RIKEN IMS banner, researchers have continued to clarify the mechanisms of disease development from both genomic and immunological perspectives, including omics analysis research to visualize biological phenomena at various levels ? for example, genomes, proteins, cells, organs and individuals.

RNA research has come into the spotlight with recent technological advances that have made it clear that cells are regulated through various RNA functions. Since 2008, the research of the Omics Science Center (OSC) has greatly clarified RNA expression and functions in a wide variety of cells, and in 2013 continued their research at the RIKEN Center for Life Science Technologies as the Division of Genome Technologies (DGT ).

With the merging of the former RIKEN IMS and DGT into the new RIKEN IMS from April 2018, we will continue to enhance and deepen our research endeavors.