Dr. Bradley A. Schulte, left, Dr. Masamichi Koyama, and Dr. Samuel S. Spicer assess the pathological changes in the aging inner ear.

When MUSC’s Samuel S. Spicer, M.D., received correspondence from a Japanese colleague describing a problem one of his graduate students was having, he had no idea the relationship would grow to a collaborative research and education exchange highly beneficial to each of their institutions.

The 1972 letter from Dr. Tetsuji Nagata, professor and chairman of the 1st Department of Anatomy at Shinshu University concerned one of his graduates whose fellowship sponsor at the University of Illinois had become incapacitated, Spicer recalled. “Professor Nagata inquired about the possibility of Dr. (Fusayoshi) Murata completing his fellowship at MUSC since at that time our laboratory had research interests related to those at Illinois University.”

Murata’s tenure in Charleston initiated a continuous series of exchanges from Japanese universities during the next 26 years.

“During this period, 15 young graduates, most with combined M.D. and Ph.D. degrees, have participated in the research work of our laboratory investigating problems of normal cell biologic mechanisms and abnormal cell function in disease by using predominantly histochemical and ultrastructural methods,” Spicer said. The visitors graduated from Shinshu University except for one from Dokkyo University in Utsonomia city. All but two spent two years in Charleston.

“These highly energetic, committed and talented young scientists have contributed immeasurably to the progress of research projects in the laboratory,” Spicer said. “Their efforts and accomplishments have been documented by authorship of more than 80 scientific publications in peer-reviewed journals.” The continuity of the exchange program depended largely on the benefits derived by those involved as visitor or host.

Following Spicer’s retirement and appointment to emeritus status in 1987, the exchange program has been administered by Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine professor Bradley A. Schulte, Ph.D., and supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants to his laboratory. Spicer continues to play a central role in training the visiting researchers.

Schulte said that although Nagata retired in 1996, the program remains intact, since Dr. Tsutomu Katsuyama, chairman of the Department of Laboratory Medicine at Shinshu University and the second participant in the program, has stepped in to take over the administrative responsibility for continued exchanges.

“Whereas the visitors have brought new interests and outlooks to the laboratory through their varied intellectual backgrounds, interests and research experience, they have, we hope, gained similarly from exposure to the thought and methodology prevailing here,” Schulte said.

He added that the record of the alumni of this program on return to Japan speaks reassuringly in the latter context, as one now serves as president of Shinshu University Hospital, three are department chairmen in Matsumoto and elsewhere, one is health director for Nagano prefecture, and others fill responsible positions in medical administration, clinical practice and research.