Division of Biotechnology and Life Science

The Division of Biotechnology and Life Science was newly established in 1995. In recent years, progress in the field of biotechnology has been outstanding, and we have been making full use of its outcome in the broad range of areas from those which are quite familiar to us, such as medicine and foods, to chemical engineering and information industries. Moreover, since the field of biotechnology comes in contact with a variety of environmental issues, an even greater development is being demanded in every branch of biotechnology.

On the other hand, we human beings are confronted with many serious problems today. It would not be too much to say that most of the problems, from disease and hunger which are directly related with life itself, to the issues concerning the global environment and energy resources, are tasks which can be solved only by use of biotechnology. Because of this, those people have been demanded from the society who can take these tasks enthusiastically and courageously and play the part of the leaders to get positive results. In the industrial world, many people have been recognizing that biotechnology should be one of the major pillars in the next generation of industries. This social background is the reason why the Division of Biotechnology and Life Science was newly instituted in the Faculty of Technology.

We are aiming at the up-to-date research and development in biotechnology. The purpose of the Division of Biotechnology and Life Science is to educate students through a 4-year course of our unique curriculum (which is based upon biochemistry and molecular biology and, at the same time, includes various subjects, from basic to advanced, to cover the whole spectrum of biotechnology) and to give the students the ability to understand the higher-order and complicated biological functions systematically and to enable them to apply the knowledge to solve various issues.

Based on the subjects in the education and research, the Division of Biotechnology and Life Science is divided into two Departments: Department of Biotechnology I and Department of Biotechnology II. The former consists of 6 Major Fields of Education and Research: Analysis and Design of Biofunction, Bioinformation Analysis, Biopolymer Physics, Cellular Molecular Engineering, Bioreaction Engineering, and Bioelectronics. The latter consists of 5 Major Fields of Education and Research: Biochemistry, Biophysical Chemistry, Protein Chemistry, Bioorganic Chemistry, and Marine Biotechnology. Each Major Field is composed of staffs who are undertaking innovative and original research actively on the frontiers of biotechnology.

The graduates of our Division have been setting the trend of the new era. The graduates of the Biotechnology Course of the Division of Material and Life Science, which was the antecedent of the Division of Biotechnology and Life Science, have been rated highly by various companies, as they have intensively mastered, and are experts in, biotechnology. Various kinds of companies, from manufacturing to chemical and textile industries and companies dealing with electric and electronic devices and equipments, medicine, health care and foods, are now expecting quite much from them. Furthermore, the Graduate School of Technology is open to the graduates, and half of them have actually been entering it, where they get much advanced knowledge and expertise in biotechnology to become opinion leaders in the next generation.

List of Professors in the Department Biotechnology