Tokyo, 23 October, 2018: The XIII edition of the Fujio Cup Quiz (FCQ) competition on Stem cells and regenerative medicine was won by the team from Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia and for the first time in the 13-year history the cup is won by a team from outside India. Started in Chennai, India in 2006 as an inaugural commemorative event of Nichi-In Centre for Regenerative Medicine (NCRM) an Indo-Japan JV institute as a national event, became a global event in 2017 since then it is held in Tokyo, Japan.

The FCQ is an active knowledge gaining event of NCRM NICHE, held every year in October since 2006, for which a team of two students in the age group 20~32 can register. The eligible 24 teams to visit Japan for the final event are selected through a highly competitive three levels of testing; one online, another assignment and a pre-final on-site quiz participated by students from various domains of science related to regenerative medicine from across the world. In the XIII Edition of the FCQ held on the 21st Oct, 2018 in Shibaura Institute, Tokyo, the team representing Bandung Institute of Technology, Indonesia comprising of Grace Aprilia Helena and Tommy Octavianus Soetrisno Tjia emerged to be winners. Institute of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine (InStem) team from India, stood second. Awarding the winners, the prestigious Fujio Cup, Dr Shojiro Katoh (President, Edogawa Hospital) said that their organization will continue to support such educational activities.

The event was participated by Prof. Masaru Iwasaki (Vice President, Yamanashi University, Japan) and Dr Ian Gallicano (Georgetown University, USA), who commented that participation in this active knowledge gaining event will add value to the curriculum vitae of the students, thus helping them with their career. Prof. Jun Hirabayashi (AIST, Tsukuba, Japan) encouraged students to take up research on glycans to study the pluripotent nature of the cells. The JBM oration was delivered by Dr Takeyoshi Shimoji on Shimoji’s Cranioplasty Yielding Life-quality Improvements in MIld Trigonocephaly (SCYLIMIT). Many students as a part of the NCRM NICHE, after visiting premier institutes in Tokyo involved in research in regenerative medicine such as TWINS and in healthcare applications such as Shibaura Institute expressed interest in pursuing their higher studies in Japan.

Earlier, Prof. James Till, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto, Canada who was awarded the 2018 Edogawa NICHE Prize (www.edogawanicheprize.org), for discovery of stem cells in 1960s jointly with Prof Ernest McCulloch, donated the prize money of One million Japanese Yen to establish a travel grant that will be named as “Joyce and James Till Travel Grant”. This grant will support travel and other associated necessities for young scholars from developing countries to take part in future NCRM NICHE events from 2019. In April 2019, when the registration for the NCRM NICHE 2019 is open, the guidelines for the travel grant will be announced and be available in the URL: www.ncrmniche.org

 Please click here for the high resolution picture

Mr Tommy and Ms Grace (Bandung Instt. of Tech.,Indonesia), being awarded the Fujio Cup by Dr Masahiro Katoh (Chairman, Edogawa Hospital) as (from L>R) Mr Ryuzaburo Katoh & Dr Shojiro Katoh (Edogawa Hosp.,), Prof Sunao Kubota (Advisor, JBM), Dr Ian Gallicano (Georgetown Univ.,), Prof Masaru Iwasaki (Yamanashi Univ.,), Dr Takeyoshi Shimoji (Amekudai Hosp.,) & Prof Jun Hirabayashi (AIST, Tsukuba) congratulate them.