From September 10th to October 3rd, School of Medical Sciences (SMS) of University of Campinas (Unicamp) received the visit of two professors from the Chiba University and another teacher from Nagasaki University, Japan. Prof. A. Watanabe is the leader of the Japanese mission, and he is the chief advisor of the collaborative project "Development of innovative diagnostic tools to detect drug resistant fungi and their application to the epidemiological surveillance in Brazil", that started in September 2017, with a duration of 5 years.

The agreement of this project was signed by the Minister of Science and Technology of Brazil, the President of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the Rector of the University of Campinas. The funds for the project are part of a Japanese government program that promotes international joint research, named SATREPS (Science and Technology Research Partnership for Sustainable Development), and is supported, in Brazil, by Japan International Cooperation Agency.

This scientific and educational project represents a financial support of US$ 5 millions to the SMS - Unicamp. The collaboration with Chiba University and SMS - Unicamp started in 1996, and this is the third important project being developed at Unicamp. Of note, it has been more than 20 years of sustainable collaboration among the Brazilian researchers from the Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Divisions, under coordination of Prof. Maria Luiza Moretti, with Chiba University.