World-Renowned Research Originated from Tekijuku Founded by Physician Koan Ogata in Edo Period

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:23 JST, October 7, 2025

Immunology is a field attracting global attention, spanning diverse areas from infectious disease treatments to vaccine development and cancer therapy. It is the specialty of Shimon Sakaguchi, 74, a specially appointed professor at the University of Osaka’s Immunology Frontier Research Center who won the 2025 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

The University of Osaka is one of the world’s leading centers in the field of immunology. Behind this lies a long history dating back to Tekijuku, a private school of Western learning founded in the Edo period (1603-1867).

The late Edo-period physician Ogata Koan established Tekijuku and Joto-kan, a medical facility for preventing smallpox through vaccination, in Osaka. Vaccination marked the first step in immunology research in Japan.

Six years after Koan’s death, in 1869, his second son established a temporary hospital with students, which became the precursor to the University of Osaka’s Faculty of Medicine. In 1905, Japan’s first specialized department for pulmonary tuberculosis was established within the department of internal medicine as a research hub for tuberculosis, which was ravaging Osaka Prefecture.

In 1962, Yuichi Yamamura, who would later lay the foundation for Japanese immunology research, took up the position of professor. Tuberculosis symptoms were thought at the time to be caused by bacteria eating away at lung tissue and creating cavities, but Yamamura confirmed through animal experiments that cavities formed even when bacteria were killed by heat, pinpointing the involvement of an immune response. Yamamura, who would eventually serve as the University of Osaka’s president, strengthened research by appointing numerous outstanding young scholars from both inside and outside the university as professors.

Tadamitsu Kishimoto — one of Yamamura’s students who later became president of the university himself — discovered the immune substance Interleukin (IL)-6 that plays a key role in the onset of rheumatoid arthritis. The finding led to groundbreaking therapeutic drug development. Kishimoto highly evaluated Sakaguchi’s research and invited him from Kyoto University when he established the University of Osaka Immunology Frontier Research Center.

First at University of Osaka

Sakaguchi’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine marks the first Nobel laureate from among University of Osaka faculty members currently on staff. He graduated from Kyoto University’s Faculty of Medicine. He served as Director of the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences, now the Institute for Life and Medical Sciences, at his alma mater.

In 2007, the University of Osaka Immunology Frontier Research Center was selected for the World Premier International Research Center Initiative by the Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Ministry. Sakaguchi decided to move to the University of Osaka, saying, “What matters is how much I can contribute to human medical treatment.” He became a professor at the University of Osaka in 2011.