It has been 15 years since I became a professor in November 1998. Within 15 years, 25 medical staffs entered the department. Since I was assigned, I have been having the education philosophy of the department, “Training humanistic clinicians who have fighting spirit and hot passion in research”. In other words, it is to train doctors who work hard both on clinical works and researches, and for that purpose, I have been teaching my staffs to work as clinicians and researchers considering applications to both medical treatments and researches. I always have been suggesting to them to keep moving forward with high ambition and passion.

　　　Regarding research, our department has been working to accomplish an elucidation of pathogenesis and clinical condition, and a development of the new treatment aiming to clinical application by carrying out international cooperative research. The research theme of our department mainly consists of four main theses: (1) Upper airway mucosal immunology - elucidation of the tonsil focal disease, and vaccine development for white birch pollinosis and childhood otitis media. (2) Analysis of the molecular oncological tumor immunology in the head and neck cancer. (3) Molecular oncological EB virologic analysis in a nasal NK/T cell lymphoma. (4) Upper airway and larynx neurophysiological research, which our department has conducted for so long.

The elucidation of the tonsil focal disease is one of my lifeworks – there are 111 presentations at conferences (16 presentations at symposiums), 17 research papers (total impact factor 28), and four staffs earned their degrees: Hayabusa Nozawa, Takashi Gotoh, Tomoki Yoshizaki, and Seigo Ueda. Our tonsil study is internationally recognized, and we hosted The 7th International Symposium on Tonsils and Mucosal Barriers of the Upper Airways in Asahikawa city. There were 156 presentations, and it marked the highest number ever. It was the biggest and international symposium that over 250 people including 30 people from abroad joined. In 2011, we were conferred Hokkaido Governor Award and Hokkaido Medical Association Award on a research about "elucidation and clinical practice of skin, osteoarticular, and renal disease focusing on tonsil". The efficacy of "the tonsillectomy + steroid-pulse therapy" for the IgA nephropathy is proved by a randomized multicenter trial at the renal society in 2012, and it gets attention in the field of nephrology. We need to enlighten the research to overseas as well while accumulating the immunological evidence.

　　　Referring to development of peptide vaccine treatment to white birch pollinosis and childhood otitis media, there are 62 presentations at conferences (including 2 presentations at symposiums), 14 research papers (total impact factor 32), and three staffs earned their degrees: Mitsuru Yanai, Yoshiya Ishida, and Yuka Nomura. Particularly, the development of the vaccine therapy for the acapsulate Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi) P6 protein which is the three major prophlogistic bacteria of the childhood otitis media is a research theme since I studied under Dr. Howard Faden at the Division of Pediatrics Infectious Diseases, University at Buffalo, the State University of New York for two years from 1991. Yusuke Abe studied at the Department of Immunology, the Roswell Park Memorial Institute (RPMI) in Buffalo through Dr. Faden, and studied an immune response of the P6 protein under Dr. Yasmin Thanavala in 2000. This study developed into the research of the immune response for the P6 protein peptide, and Yoshiya Ishida and Yuka Nomura wrote theses for their degrees. Also, the peptide vaccine therapy for the white birch pollinosis is the collaborative research with the Department of Pathology. Toshihiro Nagato who was a graduate student found a peptide response to a regulatory T cell and it appeared in J. Immunol. However, none is yet clinically applied. We hope to develop the research into the clinical application, considering collaboration between academia and industry.

　　　The analysis of the molecular oncological tumor immunology in the head and neck cancer is also the one of the big themes. As for the analysis of the molecular oncological tumor immunology about the head and neck cancer, we’ve got good results: 125 presentations at conferences (including 1 presentations at symposiums), 39 research papers (total impact factor 102), and four staffs earned their degrees: Takeshi Ogino, Nobuyuki Bando, Akihiro Katayama, and Hiroshi Shigyo. Takeshi Ogino studied tumor immunology at the Department of Immunology of RPMI, and researched under Dr. Soldano Ferrone about a protein expression of the human leukocyte antigen class I expressed on squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. It is one of our major achievements that two other staffs - Nobuyuki Bando and Akihiro Katayama - also studied at the same institute for the collaborative research with Dr. Ferrone. In addition, since last April, Toshihiro Nagato has been conducting experiments using mouse under Dr. Esteban Celis at the Department of Immunology, H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute in Tampa, FL. Takumi Kumai has been studying as a graduate student (also holding the post of an assistant professor) under Dr. Hiroya Kobayashi at the Department of Pathology of our university to develop the immunotherapy for EGFR and cancer antigen using the HLA class II antigens restrictive epitope. In the field of the molecular oncology, we have investigated the correlation associated between molecule and prognosis on tumor growth and metastasis. Three staffs wrote their theses: Nobuyuki Bando studied maxillary cancer and an apoptotic related molecule, Akihiro Katayama studied MMP molecule in oral cancer, and Hiroshi Shigyo researched NO in laryngeal cancer. Although many clinical departments rely on basic departments on research currently, the accomplishment that these researches were conducted at our department built the basis a high quality research can be performed at the department.

　　　The research on nasal NK/T cell lymphoma is one of my lifeworks since I reported first in the world that it is caused by EBV in Lancet in 1990. Even after becoming a professor, I have been working on the research diligently. Within 15 years, there are 104 presentations at conferences (including 1 presentations at symposiums), 25 research papers (total impact factor 86), and five staffs earned their degrees: Miki Takahara, Toshihiro Nagato, Hideyuki Ishii, Shigetaka Moriai, and Kazumi Yoshino. Moreover, three projects as Basic Research B and five projects as Young Scientists B received Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research. We have been conducting collaborative researches with both domestic and foreign institutes actively. In Japan, we conducted the collaborative research with Dr. Katsuyuki Aozasa, a former professor at the Department of Pathology, Osaka University, and wrote five papers. The cell line and culture medium are given by Dr. Norio Shimizu, a professor at Medical Research Institute Tokyo Medical and Dental University. In order to the research of the association between nasal NK/T cell lymphoma and EBV, Miki Takahara and Hideyuki Ishii studied under Dr. Eva Klein at Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, and Seigo Ueda studied under Dr. David Nadal at University Children’s Hospital of Zurich, Switzerland. So far we have found that these lymphoma cells secrete many cytokines and chemokine by a function of LMP1 which is an EBV oncoprotein while proliferating themselves, and they enhance lymphocytes and monocytes that invade around the lymphoma cells in a paracrine manner, moreover, the secreted cytokines are associated with the cell proliferation. We hope to develop the research into clinical applications such as a molecular targeted therapy and an immunotherapy for EBV.

　　　The research on an upper airway and a larynx neurophysiology using the animal model is the major research theme of our department inherited from Dr. Unno, a former professor. Many researches were accomplished by Satoshi Nonaka, a former associate professor and Akihiro Katada, an instructor. There are 124 presentations at conferences (including 12 presentations at symposiums), 28 research papers (total impact factor 41), and four staffs earned their degrees: Isamu Kunibe, Masaaki Adachi, Takuya Arakawa and Kenichiro Nomura, and four projects as Basic Research C and two projects as Encouragement of Scientists A, and one project as Young Scientists B received Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research.

Masaaki Adachi and Ryo Ota studied a central mechanism of the deglutition reflex under Dr. Kaoru Takakusaki at Research Center for Brain Function and Medical Engineering. Akihiro Katada, Isamu Kunibe and Kenichiro Nomura put their efforts into the development of the functional electric stimulation therapy for the laryngeal paralysis from 2003 under Dr. David Zealear at the Department of Otolaryngology, Vanderbilt University in Nashville, USA. Even after they returned to Japan, we have been continuously developing the research, and it will be clinically applied to humans shortly.

　　　The compiled works of our researches is published to collect the 15 years’ research achievements and make a promise to the further developments. This is our summary of researches that all of us have put our efforts into studies day and night for the clinical applications while facing a manpower shortage since a new residency system was started. This book contains 139 full-text articles (total impact factor 421), appeared in journals written in English. We are proud of the achievements considering the size of our department. Our research achievements are high quality; however, none has been yet clinically applied unfortunately. We strongly hope for the further developments within next five years.