Research on the safety of genetically modified foods began in 1989 by forming a research group with researchers from private dairy companies. The group contributed to the establishment of the Japan Society for Lactic Acid Bacteria academically and to the development of international guidelines on the safety of genetically modified foods administratively. The group needed a recombinant lactic acid bacterium as a model for safety evaluation, which was later expanded to recombinant vaccine development research.

Based on the previous studies of vaccination, we are recognized that the administration of a vaccine through the infection route of a pathogen is highly effective for vaccination. According to the concept, oral vaccination is the best strategy to induce both local mucosal and systemic immunity against mucosal infective type pathogens. Among several candidates of vaccine agents, Lactobacillus strains are particularly attractive as the antigen delivery vehicles because of the safeness and the adjuvanticity. we constructed recombinant Lactic Acid Bacteria expressing many kinds of protective antigens. Most successful vaccine has been established oral heat-killed vaccine for human papillomavirus

(HPV). As a result, high levels of HPV E7 specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) were induced from the immunized both mice and human. Currently, human clinical trials are underway using this vaccine.