Recent advances in molecular biology have led to identification of molecules associated with carcinogenesis and the development of molecular-targeted drugs that selectively attack qualitative or quantitative molecular changes in cancer cells. Molecular-targeted drugs are classified into "small molecules" and "therapeutic monoclonal antibodies" due to these modalities' difference in molecular weight. Molecular-targeted therapy is often guided by clinically meaningful biomarkers, including the gain or loss of function in cancer-related target genes, which could occur due to point mutations, amplification events, fusions, or deletions. Potent therapeutic effects can be expected from targeting mutations, called driver mutations, which directly underlie carcinogenesis, using corresponding molecular-targeted drugs. In recent years, the development of next-generation sequencing technologies has made it possible to quantitate expression of hundreds of gene sequences at once, and an oncogene panel containing genes related to cancer has been approved for coverage by the national health insurance in Japan. Precision Medicine is medical care designed to optimize efficiency or therapeutic benefits for particular patient groups or individual patients using genetic or molecular profiling. Precision medicine is finally underway in Japan due to recent advances in the development of molecular-targeted drugs and development of affordable diagnostic methods.

Angelman syndrome is a disorder characterized by severe intellectual disability, epilepsy, ataxic movement disorder, and easily provoked laughter. In hemiconvulsion-hemiplegia-epilepsy (HHE) syndrome, the patient presents with unilateral convulsive superimposition during fever, followed by transient or permanent hemiplegia, and later epilepsy. Herein, we report a case of Angelman syndrome with HHE syndrome. The patient was a 1-year-old girl. She was brought to the hospital with convulsive overload, controlled by medication, but a cluster of convulsions occurred on the fifth day of sickness. Based on patient history and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images of the head, biphasic encephalopathy was diagnosed, and symptomatic treatment with anticonvulsants was initiated. HHE syndrome was diagnosed based on the fact that the patient presented with unilateral generalized tonic-clonic convulsions and hemiplegia during the course of acute infection and later developed epilepsy. The early management of convulsions is important in acute encephalopathy, and in Angelman syndrome, not only febrile convulsions but also HHE syndrome may occur. In this study, we found that early identification of patients with epilepsy may lead to appropriate management in the acute phase and reduce the long-term sequelae of epilepsy.

With the spread of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) since February 2020, we have aimed to build an educational system for the academic year 2021, that extends on that of the pre-COVID-19 days. Here, we present the measures taken by the university for this purpose, along with our future outlook.

In March 2020, all clinical training and activities were cancelled due to the spread of infection. We discussed how to create an effective environment for learning, implement training requiring face-to-face classes, and extend the academic term to meet graduation requirements, while ensuring health and safety. For clinical and basic training, we reduced student numbers by half, and conducted training during the summer vacation. Efforts to maintain the same effectiveness as face-to-face lectures were made through review tests and Q&A support via e-mail. Some live tutorials were conducted.

Consequently, there were no significant differences in student performance for the academic year 2020 compared with the previous three years, except for improved performance in the fourth year. However, there was a wider difference in scores between high and low achieving students. Furthermore, responses to a questionnaire revealed that among those who "often" or "fairly often" had interactions with others, the percentage of teaching staff was a mere 1%, which is an issue.

For the academic year 2021, we continue to provide a combination of face-to-face training and online lectures while ensuring infection control. About 30 student support staff were designated to increase communication with students through interviews and provide regular support for academics and daily life. In future, we hope to construct a new hybrid educational system, incorporating the advantages of face-to-face and remote learning, to enhance interactions during online lectures and improve its timeliness.

We have been forced to curtail our social and economic activities for a long time while trying to cope with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. As a result, the number of suicides in Japan, which had been declining in recent years, has begun to increase again. The increase has been particularly pronounced among young people and women, and this is deeply related to the gender issues that Japanese society faces. For example, women's employment is unstable compared to that of men. Furthermore, women are responsible for most of care-related work such as child care, nursing care, and household work. Single mothers and women working in non-regular employment face a serious situation. There is an urgent need to not only deal with basic infectious diseases but also address the structural gender issues that Japanese society is facing.

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread worldwide, and the number of cases and deaths is still increasing: it has also made a significant impact in Japan. The causative agent of COVID-19 is SARS-coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2), closely related to SARS-CoV, the causative agent of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). However, epidemiological patterns of SARS and COVID-19 are different. As of November 2021, over 1.7 million cases, with over 18,000 deaths, have been reported in Japan. There have been five COVID-19 outbreaks in Japan between January 2020 and November 2021. Each outbreak showed different epidemiological characteristics. Almost all countries globally have experienced a significant impact of COVID-19, with the intensity of effects varying between countries. In general, high-income countries in Europe and North America and middle-income countries have higher incidence and mortality per population compared with low-income countries. The exact reasons for such a difference are currently unknown. Japan has lower incidence and mortality per population than most other high-income countries.