University of Osaka, Kyoto University Launch Research Funds to Support Japanese Nobel Prize Winners’ Fields

By Naomi Nagao / Japan News Staff Writer

7:00 JST, December 9, 2025

STOCKHOLM — The University of Osaka and Kyoto University have established funds to support the research fields of Nobel laureates Shimon Sakaguchi, a distinguished honorary professor at University of Osaka, and Susumu Kitagawa, a distinguished professor at Kyoto University. The funds will be used for initiatives the two researchers consider important, including the training of young researchers, and donations are being widely solicited.

The University of Osaka set up the Shimon Sakaguchi Research Support Fund on Oct. 10. The fund will support research related to regulatory T cells (Tregs), which were discovered by Sakaguchi and for which he was selected for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Akihiko Takagi, a specially appointed professor at University of Osaka’s Immunology Frontier Research Center, which planned the fund, said: “The applications of Tregs are advancing, and going forward, even more funding will be required. We also want to expand support for young researchers.”

The Institute for Integrated Cell-Material Sciences at Kyoto University, where Kitagawa is based, has also begun accepting donations to an existing fund for research in the field of metal-organic frameworks, a porous material developed by Kitagawa, who has been chosen for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.