Mr Toshinao Urabe, Japanese Ambassador to Ireland, paid an official visit to RCSI this evening.

Mr Urabe, accompanied by First Secretary Mr Yamada, met with Professor Masayuki Kobayashi, Nihon University, Tokyo, who is currently visiting RCSI, and with officials and scientists from RCSI including Professor Cathal Kelly, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences; Professor John Waddington, Professor of Neuroscience; Professor David Croke, MCT; Dr Colm O’Tuathaigh, MCT; Ms Daniela Babovic, MCT; and Dr Lieve Desbonnet, MCT.

The visit was to mark the award of a research grant to Professors Koshikawa, Iwata and Kobayashi at The School of Dentistry and Dental Research Centre, Nihon University, for a Translational Research Network on Orofacial Neurological Disorders.

An important element of this programme is a network of international faculty and their research teams. These collaborators include Professor John Waddington, Molecular & Cellular Therapeutics, RCSI, together with colleagues in the Netherlands, Canada and USA.

In 2000 Professor Waddington was visiting Professor at Nihon University School of Dentistry, while from 1999-2001 and again in 2006, Dr Katsunori Tomiyama was a visiting research fellow in RCSI. Over the past decade, six scientists from Nihon University have visited RCSI. In September 2008 Professor Waddington will visit Nihon University.