濱野 真二郎

Infectious diseases are still a huge menace to human health and continue unabated in tropical areas under the conditions of poverty and the unique natural and social environments. Various kinds of parasites infect humans for long periods of time without killing them, giving rise to tremendous social and/or economic loss. Shinjiro Hamano M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor of Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University. Since he has been eager to control Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), he specially studied Parasitology, Tropical Infectious Disease and Immunology. He would like to develop deep insight into infectious diseases and the surrounding factors from various points of view through both field and laboratory studies. Their goal is to contribute to new knowledge and to provide new tools that are crucial to controlling infectious diseases.

Dr. Hamano graduated in medicine and received an M.D. degree from Kumamoto University in 1993 and a Ph.D. degree from Kyushu University, Fukuoka in 1999. As a doctoral student at Institute of Medical Bioregulation, Kyushu University, he studied host defense mechanism against various kinds of pathogens. After adoption to the Department of Parasitology, Kyushu University, as an assistant professor on Dec. 1997, he focused on the investigation on host defense mechanism against protozoan parasites. His research interests are on tropical infectious diseases and host defense mechanism to microbes including parasites. He and his colleagues found out that newly identified orphan cytokine receptor WSX-1 is required for the initiation of Th1 responses and resistance to Leishmania major infection using WSX-1 deficient mice. Then, IL-27 was identified to be one of the ligands for WSX-1. Furthermore, They clarified that IL-27/WSX-1 signaling pathway involves the induction of transcriptional factor T-bet through activation of STAT1 and that WSX-1 is also required for the resistance to T. cruzi and T. gondii infection by regulation of pro-inflammatory cytokine production. Then, IL-27/WSX-1 jumped into the leading groups of the investigation about Th1/Th2 differentiation and immuno-regulation. From 2015, they have initiated the project to develop “A live attenuated prophylactic vaccine for leishmaniasis using CRISPR gene editing” as an international multidisciplinary collaboration with the support by the Global Health Innovative Technology Fund.

Besides the immunological approach, we have been carried out a field study in tropical countries, such as Bangladesh, Nepal, Bolivia, and Kenya. Through the study, we elucidated that the prevalence of alpha-thalassemia is correlated with the endemicity of malaria in Nepal and showed that alpha-thalassemic individuals also show low malaria infection rate. E. moshkovskii infection was elucidated to associate with diarrhea in Bangladeshi children. In Kenya, we found that risk factors and spatial distribution of Schistosoma mansoni infection on the shores and islands of Lake Victoria, Mbita district, Kenya and those of Schistosoma haematobium and hookworm infections among schoolchildren in Kwale, Kenya. He has also dedicated himself for the GHIT projects “DTECT-Schisto” aiming to develop diagnostic tools for elimination and control programs targeting schistosomiasis.