Doctoral Program for World-leading Innovative & Smart Education

On December 9, 2021, Hiroshima University held the fourth seminar in the advanced science seminar series on the theme of "Developing a Future Society with Genome Editing."

In the fourth seminar, Assistant Prof. SHIMODE Sayumi of the Genome Editing Innovation Center, Hiroshima University, delivered a lecture titled "Genome editing technology for the safety of biological products"

Focusing on vaccines among other biological products, Assistant Prof. Shimode explained her research aimed at preventing the risk of contamination by cell-derived foreign substances during the vaccine manufacturing process. Individual animals and cultured cells are used in the vaccine manufacturing process to increase pathogens, which can result in contamination with cell components. By using the domestically produced genome editing tool "Platinum TALEN," her research team has enabled the production of vaccines containing no infectious virus for dogs and cats. She also mentioned that to prevent contamination by foreign substances derived from cells, it is required to establish and practice safer procedures for manufacturing biopharmaceuticals using genome editing technology.

In Hiroshima University's advanced science seminar series "Developing a Future Society with Genome Editing," speakers mainly from Hiroshima University in charge of the Frontier Development Program for Genome Editing (selected as a Doctoral Program for World-leading Innovative & Smart Education) introduce their efforts related to genome-editing technology-one of Hiroshima University's strengths-and give clear explanations of the present status and future of the technology. The series is planned to comprise four seminars.
Details about the next and subsequent seminars will be given on the website of the Frontier Development Program for Genome Editing and through other media. We look forward to having many people attend the seminars.