President Keiji Terao

I am Dr. Keiji Terao (CycloChem Co., Ltd.), who has been appointed as the president of the Society of Cyclodextrins, Japan at the general meeting in September 2024. Since the founding of the Society of Cyclodextrins, Japan in 1993, most of the presidents of the Society have been from universities.  Among successive presidents, Dr. Jin Hashimoto was only the president from industry (1998 -2000) who successfully promoted industry-university cooperation. As the president from industry adoring Dr. Hashimoto, I would like to promote cooperation between industry and academia further.

Our society is an academic organization composed of members who are engaged in research and development on cyclodextrins and span a wide range of fields such as science, engineering, pharmacy, agriculture, and food science. The main activities of our society are the management of the cyclodextrin symposium held once a year, the planning and support of international symposiums, and the awards of academic societies, contribution awards, and incentive awards.

The 1st Cyclodextrin Symposium was held in 1981 organized by Prof. Iwao Tabushi (Kyoto University), and the 40th Symposium was held in 2024 organized by Prof. Jun Terao (the University of Tokyo). Similarly, the first International Cyclodextrin Symposium was held in Hungary in 1981 by Dr. Jozsef Szejtli (Chinoin) as the organizer, and the 20th was by Prof. Antonino Mazzaglia （CNR-ISMN） in Italy in 2022. In Japan, the 2nd (Tokyo) in 1984, the 7th (Tokyo) in 1994, the 14th (Kyoto) in 2008, and Profs. Keiko Takahashi (Tokyo Polytechnic University) and Takashi Hayashita（Sophia University) organized the 19th (Tokyo) in 2018. The first Asian Cyclodextrin Conference (ACC) was held in 2002 organized by Profs. Kenjiro Hattori (Tokyo Polytechnic University) and Keiji Yamamoto (Chiba University), and the 11th ACC in 2023 was held in Kunming, China, organized by Prof. Yu Liu (Nankai University).

The cyclic oligosaccharides, cyclodextrins, are water-soluble and have nano-sized hydrophobic cavities based on the size of their cyclic ring. Therefore, cyclodextrins have the function of encapsulating various organic molecules and dissolving them in water, and protecting molecules that easily react with water, oxygen, and light. Cyclodextrins are known as a natural product and have been confirmed their non-toxicity as a food additive. Therefore, cyclodextrins have been used in a wide range of fields such as instant coffee and tubed wasabi in the food industry, air fresheners and deodorants that utilize sustained release in households, and injections and drug delivery systems in medical materials. Recently, the function of cyclodextrins has attracted much attention as a therapeutic drug for Niemann-Pick disease type c. In 1992, Prof. Akira Harada (Osaka University) succeeded in molecular recognition of water-soluble polymers using cyclodextrins for the first time in the world as a new cyclodextrin research, which resulted in the development of novel cyclodextrin necklaces and cyclodextrin nanotubes. It is evident that the world’s first-class cyclodextrin research based on supramolecular chemistry is being developed in Japan.

The Society of Cyclodextrins, Japan is a small-sized friendly society with about 200 members, but researchers and engineers from various fields involved in cyclodextrin research actively present their research and exchange information every year in Japan and in the world, realizing an initiative in the world cyclodextrin research. I heartily expect that all researchers, regardless of university or company, as our society members will play an important role for creating new research fields using cyclodextrins in order to enrich the human lives in the world.

We sincerely welcome the enrollment of all researchers and engineers who are interested in cyclodextrins.