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RERF receives advice from “Stakeholder Committee on Usage of RERF’s Stored Biosamples”

In 2018, the Stakeholder Committee on Usage of RERF’s Stored Biosamples was established in Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the purpose of listening to the objective opinions of third parties with no special interest in RERF’s operations regarding the fair use policy of biosamples such as blood stored at the foundation. The results of careful discussions by the committee over a period of more than two years were summarized into written “advice” (see hyperlink below to access) to RERF, and ceremonies formally marking the transfer of the advice from the committees to RERF were held in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, with the two cities connected online, on October 28.

The ceremony began with a speech by Dr. Koichi Maekawa, Hiroshima Chairperson, followed by Dr. Shigeru Katamine, Nagasaki Chairperson. The committee’s advice in written form was handed to Dr. Ohtsura Niwa, Chairman of RERF, by Chairman Maekawa in Hiroshima and to Dr. Kazunori Kodama, Executive Director of RERF, by Chairman Katamine in Nagasaki. Dr. Niwa later expressed his gratitude to all the committee members for their involvement in the advice preparations. Dr. Niwa also added his comments on the importance of sample analysis at the molecular level and on matters requiring consideration into the future regarding the potential for use of RERF’s stored biosamples.

After the ceremony, a press conference was held with 11 media outlets attending in Hiroshima and 10 in Nagasaki.

Stakeholder Committee on Usage of RERF’s Stored Biosamples—Committee’s Advice

Details of ceremony (including press gathering)

Date and time: Wednesday, October 28, 2020—11:00-12:05
Location: <<Hiroshima Venue>>
“Ran,” Basement 2nd floor, International Conference Center Hiroshima
<<Nagasaki Venue>>
Nagasaki Laboratory, Radiation Effects Research Foundation
Attendees: <<Hiroshima venue>>
Chairman: Koichi Maekawa, Former President, Hiroshima University of Economics
Vice Chairman: Masao Kobayashi, Director, Chushikoku Block Blood Center, Japanese Red Cross Society
RERF: Ohtsura Niwa, Chairman, and Robert L. Ullrich, Vice Chairman, RERF
<<Nagasaki venue>>
Chairman: Shigeru Katamine, Chairman, Nagasaki Municipal Hospital Organization, Former President, Nagasaki University
Vice Chairman: Mariko Mine, Chairman of the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Survivor Countermeasures Council
RERF: Kazunori Kodama, Executive Director, RERF