- Q: What is your current research topic?
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- The research theme is the mucosal immune mechanism of fish and the development of new vaccines that utilize it. Farmed fish lose about 5% of their total production value each year due to disease. Vaccination can prevent mortality, but it requires injecting each of the tens of thousands of fish in the farm. This requires a lot of effort and cost, and it is not realistic to inject into fish that are cheap per unit. To solve this problem, we are conducting research on immersion vaccines that can immunize fish by simply immersing them in a vaccine solution. Currently, this vaccine is only effective against a limited number of diseases, but it is known that the vaccine is absorbed through the gills. By elucidating this system, we aim to develop an immersion vaccine that can be used to treat all diseases.
- Q: What motivated you to start researching this?
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When I was a graduate student, I was researching DNA vaccines, but when I graduated with my doctorate, I wanted to try something new and became interested in immersion vaccines. I didn't understand why it worked just by immersing it in the vaccine, and I wanted to understand why.
- Q: What is interesting and rewarding about your research?
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- Immunology has developed in mammals, and this has become common knowledge. However, fish have a unique immune system that only fish have. If you think about it, their body temperatures are different, and they breathe through their gills, so it's only natural that they are different. I find it interesting to discover new things that go against conventional common sense. In addition, because we want to apply our research results to the fishing industry, we often have the opportunity to talk with people in the fishing industry. With regard to the research topic of immersion vaccines using gill cells, we can sense strong expectations from people in the fishing industry for practical use. This is a great motivation for us.
- Q: What are some of the challenges of research?
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There is no organism to serve as a model. Humans and mice have about 90% homology at the DNA level. Mammals differ by that amount, but rainbow trout, which looks a little similar to yellowtail, only have about 30% to 50% homology at the genetic level. This means that we cannot study one type of fish and use it as a model. We need to start by creating tools and data for each type of fish. This is difficult, but it could also be said to be rewarding.
- Q: What kind of social impact can you expect from your research?
Please tell us about long-term (up to 10 years from now) and short-term (1-2 years from now) plans.
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In the long term, immersion vaccines will enable fish that could not be vaccinated before to be immunized, which will contribute to the development of the fisheries industry and reduce the use of antibiotics, thereby helping to alleviate the problem of drug resistance.
In the short term, we can conduct research with such dreams. Many students enter our laboratory every year, and I think that by providing a place for research where they can have fun and express their ideas, we are able to contribute to broadening the scope of fisheries. - Q: Which SDGs can your research contribute to?
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This will contribute to goals such as "Goal 2: Zero Hunger" and "Goal 14: Life below water."
We believe that by increasing the productivity of farmed fish and reducing the use of antibiotics through the widespread use of vaccinations, we will be able to supply safe and secure fish. - Q: Please tell us about the significance of conducting research at Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology.
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- Our university is home to researchers specializing in the marine and fisheries fields, and it is an environment where they can compete with each other. In addition, because students enroll because they are interested in the ocean and marine life, they are highly motivated to do research, and the quality of their research is also high. I think that being inspired by the enthusiasm of the students is one of our university's strengths, as it allows us to conduct high-quality research.
- Q: What are your priorities and policies when conducting research?
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- What is important in research is "how honest I can be." I am highly conscious of researcher ethics in order to prevent fraud and inaccurate results. I believe that accuracy is the most important thing, no matter how trivial the discovery.
- Associate Professor Goji Kato's OA paper is here
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Paper title: A Novel Antigen-Sampling Cell in the Teleost Gill Epithelium With the Potential for Direct Antigen Presentation in Mucosal Tissue
Authors and co-authors: Goshi Kato, Haruya Miyazawa, Yumiko Nakayama, Yuki Ikari, Hidehiro Kondo, Takuya Yamaguchi, Motohiko Sano, Uwe Fischer.
Published in: Frontiers in Immunology Publication date: September 2018 DOI: doi.org/9/fimmu.10.3389
