Japanese AMED research project and Brazilian institute workshop on Zika virus

A Workshop on Zika virus was held at the National Institute of Infectious Diseases (NIID) in Tokyo on July 12 and 13. It brought together the researchers from the AMED-funded project comprising NIID, Nagasaki University, and Toshiba Medical Systems Corporation, from Japan, and researchers from the Institute Oswald Cruz and National Institute of Infectious Diseases and the Laboratory of Immunopathology Keizo Asami, Federal University of Pernambuco, from Brazil.

Participants shared information about their ongoing projects and explored opportunities for collaboration such as in the clinical application of a rapid testing method for Zika virus detection.

At the opening of the event, Dr. Sarquis J.B. Sarquis, Deputy Head of Mission from the Brazilian Embassy, and Dr. Ichiro Kurane, Director General of NIID and member of the GloPID-R Scientific Advisory Board, gave remarks to welcome the development of collaboration between the two countries to combat Zika virus. In May 2016, AMED increased R&D funding for the existing research project on Zika virus to support the collaboration.