Specially Appointed Professor, Teikyo University
Chieko Kai graduated from the Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agriculture, the University of Tokyo, in 1978, and completed the doctoral course at the University of Tokyo Graduate School in 1983. She is a veterinarian and holds a doctorate in agriculture. From 1999, she served as a professor at the Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo, where she held positions including Director of the Experimental Animal Research Facility, Director of the Amami Disease Animal Research Facility, Director of the Human Disease Model Research Center, and Deputy Director of the Institute, while also serving as a professor at the Center for Infectious Disease Control and International Research. Outside the university, she has served as a regular member of the Science Council of Japan, Chair of the National University Corporation Animal Experiment Council, a member of the Council for Science and Technology at the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Vice-Chair of its Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Subcommittee and Chair of its Subsidy Examination Subcommittee, and a member of the Central Pharmaceutical Affairs Council at the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. Following her retirement from the Institute of Medical Science, she is now a Specially Appointed Professor at Teikyo University and Professor Emeritus of the University of Tokyo.
She began virus research in 1990. In 2005, she succeeded in artificially synthesizing the Nipah virus for the first time in the world, and has worked on small-scale outbreaks of Nipah virus infection in Asia, including Malaysia and Bangladesh. Her research focuses on elucidating the mechanisms behind emerging infectious diseases that spread across species and on developing vaccines capable of providing complete protection against the Nipah virus. Across various paramyxoviruses — including measles virus, canine distemper virus, rinderpest virus, and Nipah virus — she has developed reverse genetics systems, elucidated pathogenic mechanisms, and researched countermeasures, with a particular focus on the Asian region. For the highly lethal Nipah virus, she succeeded in developing world-first technology that advanced basic research, and also succeeded in developing a bivalent vaccine using a recombinant measles virus vector. She is currently advancing practical research through international collaboration with the support of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), which has committed a total of USD 31 million (approximately JPY 3.44 billion) to the Nipah virus vaccine development project led by Professor Kai and colleagues — the first such project in Japan to be adopted for CEPI funding. She has also developed an oncolytic recombinant measles virus and is advancing research toward its practical application.
