Professor ONO promotes research on the objective assessment of difficulty of mastication/swallowing, development of rehabilitation technology using intraoral devices, and relationship between masticatory performance/behavior and overall health. He has developed a system to monitor chewing behavior in daily life using a wearable chewing movement monitoring device in collaboration with Sharp Corporation for clinical application. He has also conducted randomized controlled trial using algorithms promoting changes in mastication behavior to obtain evidence contributing to the prevention and management of lifestyles diseases.
This research is conducted with support from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED).
Professor NAKATA and his colleagues are involved in the development of a new treatment for autoimmune alveolar proteinosis, a designated intractable disease. They have demonstrated that GM-CSF inhalation therapy is effective in investigator-initiated clinical trials. GM-CSF inhalation therapy is a new treatment supplying extrinsic GM-CSF by inhalation. It is inhaled twice a daily for each about 20 minutes every two weeks for a total of 24 weeks at home, which is a comfortable treatment for the patients. They are now negotiating with some company for future drug approval by the government. This research had been supported from the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED).