Our History and Mission

The Center for Interdisciplinary Cardiovascular Sciences (CICS) was established in 2009 by a collaboration agreement between the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (Boston, MA) and Kowa Company, Ltd. (Tokyo, Japan).

The goals of CICS are to promote better understanding of the mechanisms of cardiovascular inflammation and cardiometabolic disorders and to enhance further advancement in cardiovascular prevention and therapy through a translational research program that consists of investigators from academia and industry with multidisciplinary backgrounds acting in concert in a shared space.

Featured Scientist

Takeshi Tanaka is one of our talented Kowa scientists that joined CICS in 2019 as a research scientist in Professor Elena Aikawa’s Group. Takeshi is interested in applying innovative strategies to screen for drug candidates to treat aortic/valve calcification. Recently, Takeshi and his team applied a computational approach to identify niclosamide, an FDA-approved drug, as an inhibitor of calcification in vitro and in vivo. He is also interested in establishing aortic valve stenosis/calcification animal models for further drug screening and development. Takashi has been very fulfilled by his research experience at CICS and has thoroughly enjoyed collaborating with is colleagues that have diverse skills. While residing in Boston, he has enjoyed taking trips to visit the beautiful New England scenery.