April of this year marked the fifth anniversary of the establishment of the RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology under the auspices of the Japanese government's Millennium Project research initiatives. Looking back to that time, when the ground on which the CDB now stands was still nothing more than an empty plot on Kobe's Port Island, I recall both the great sense of possibility and the tremendous burden of responsibility shared by everyone in the first labs that signed on to this ambitious new project. Now, with our foundation-laying and growing pains behind us, the CDB is entering into a new phase of its history, in which we look to sustain the momentum that carried us through those remarkable days and continue building a tradition of pioneering life sciences research. The Millennium Project program concluded this year, but our goals remain consistent with its mission of exploring and understanding the mechanisms of animal development and regeneration.

Following a banner year in 2004, the research programs moved from strength to strength in 2005, reporting findings from across the spectrum of developmental biology and opening up new questions for investigation. A few areas saw particular progress, with a number of teams advancing our understanding of head development in mammals and several reports of techniques for guiding embryonic stem cells to differentiate into a range of cell lineages, including retinal neurons, mesendoderm and forebrain precursors. Mouse research in general came into its own this year, with CDB labs contributing to major new findings in the establishment of the germ line and to the first origins of cell differentiation in the early embryo. It is heartening to see that the investment of hard effort and long hours in the formative years of the CDB has paid such a handsome return, and I hope that you will find this report to be a helpful guide to some of the past year's research highlights.

Of course, research of this caliber cannot be conducted in isolation. The CDB backs its laboratories with funds and strong administrative support to encourage the holding of international seminars and meetings, and 2005 saw meetings held in conjunction with institutions in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Germany and Finland, as well as an excellent two-day program focused on the developmental diversity of invertebrates. A scan of the author lists for articles published by CDB labs stands as testament to the internationality of the active research effort here, with collaborations be- tween the CDB and labs in Europe, America and, increasingly, other parts of Asia now starting to bear fruit.

The growth of developmental biology and regenerative medicine in the Asia-Pacific region has been remarkable in recent years, and we have sought to encourage and support this trend in the interests of making these fields truly global in scope and in practice. We welcome the establishment of regional organizations such as the Asia-Pacific Developmental Biology Network and, beginning in 2006, plan to support a number of young scientists and graduate students with subsidies for travel to Japan to participate in our annual symposium. For longer-term guests and staff arriving from overseas, the CDB offers a wide range of support services to ease their transition into a new research and living environment, and by early 2006 we stand to see the proportion of our scientific staff coming from outside of Japan rise to above 10% of the total. I believe this increasingly global participation speaks both of the attention garnered by the Center's publication record and our growing reputation for having developed a research environment in which exceptional scientists from any background can feel equally at home.

One of the primary objectives of the Millennium Project when it was launched in 2000 was to address the challenges of an aging society, one of Japan's most pressing issues for the economic, social and healthcare implications of its rapidly right-shifting demographic. For us in research, the problem of the decline in the average birth rate is compounded by a waning interest in science among younger generations, a quandary that confronts many other countries as well. While RIKEN is not an academic institution, we recognize the value of encouraging public understanding of and interest in science, and have developed a range of materials and programs in Japanese and English to introduce our research and the exciting frontiers of development and regeneration. Many of these can be found on our institute's website at www.cdb.riken.jp, and are available free for use in classroom and research presentations.

With the close of our fifth year, the CDB saw a number of transitions in its research staff, with two labs finding new homes at national universities, where we wish them continued success, and one new team joining the Center this summer. Encouraging mobility and opportunities has always been one of our goals, and it is gratifying to see that a number of CDB alumni have secured professorships in academia. As the Center enters a new phase of increased institutional maturity, we hope to continue to attract fresh new talent and foster the careers of our own staff as part of our ongoing mission to make real contributions to our field, and to the scientific endeavor in general. I hope that you find this report useful and informative, and wish you all the best for the year to come.

Masatoshi TAKEICHI
Director, RIKEN Center for Developmental Biology