Bio: From 1986, Dr. Kanno served on the faculty at Pathology Department of Tokyo Medical and Dental University and was a Visiting Scientist of NIEHS (1991–1993). In 1997, he moved to National Institute of Health Sciences (NIHS) as a section chief, and from 2002 as the Head of the Division of Cellular & Molecular Toxicology, specialize in general and experimental pathology and toxicology. He served as the Director of the Japan Bioassay Research Center (2016-2019), and from 2020, he is the Visiting Researcher/ Emeritus Researcher of the NIHS, from 2021, Medical Director of Pathology at Nissan Tamagawa Hospital, and from 2023, Visiting Senior Fellow of the Systems Biology Institute. His research includes molecular toxicology on “signal toxicity” of central nervous system, “Percellome” toxicogenomics and nanomatrials toxicology. He has served as the President of Japanese Society of Toxicology and of IUTOX.

Abstract: Since time immemorial, humans have consumed plants, animals, and other prey from the mountains and seas, and accumulated knowledge about what is safe to eat and touch. This knowledge was the beginning of the "science" of "poison ". "Poison Science" studies the biological mechanisms of poisons down to the molecular level along with the making of the Poison List. In this process, a variety of test methods have developed.

In contrast, “Modern Toxicology" is a scholarly system to prevent the new products created by civilization from causing harm to the civilized society. Modern civilization creates new products to make life better for everyone. However, such products bring harm to people and/or environment that their creators do not intend.

“Modern Toxicology” uses the knowledge and experience of “Poison Science” to identify these unintended adverse effects of the new products and provide such information to the creators/manufacturers and consumers before the new products cause harm to the civilized society; this process brings a win-win situation to both industrial promotion and safety assurance.

Here, as an example, we would like to present the relation between asbestos (poison) and carbon nanotube (new product), and our approach to comprehensively analyzing unknown toxicities of new products (including PFAS) using Percellome Toxicogenomics.