Reference Materials
A mini-review on public and scientific activities performed at the Department of Antibiotics, the National Institute of Health of Japan
2020 Volume 73 Issue 3 Pages 79-89
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2020 Volume 73 Issue 3 Pages 79-89
The Department of Antibiotics that was established accompanying the birth of the National Institute of Health of Japan (NIHJ) in 1947 after the 2nd world war, had performed its public and scientific roles for 45 years until its reformation in 1992. Dr. Hamao Umezawa, the first director of the department, showed the excellent leadership in order to complete the stable supply to Japanese people of highly qualitative penicillin (PC) followed by streptomycin (SM). Subsequently, he run varieties of projects successively resulting in the discovery of the epoch-making antibiotic kanamycin (KM) and other important antibiotics as well as the establishment of Japanese Antibiotics Standard. Furthermore, his contribution over 30 years brought the outstanding development in Japan of antibiotic industry as well as antibiotic research. We will outline these historical achievements performed at the department of Antibiotics, NIHJ in this article.
