A new initiative was launched by a Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in fiscal year 2002 to cultivate a competitive academic environment among Japanese universities by giving targeted support, for five years, to the creation of world-standard research and education bases (Centers-of-Excellence). In this year, a research and educational program entitled Cell Fate Regulation Research and Education Unit proposed by ten professors affiliated to Institute of Molecular Embryology and Genetics, Faculty of Medical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Center for Animal Resources and Development was selected as a 21st Century Center-of-Excellence (COE) by MEXT. This COE program aims to promote research on cell fate regulation, which is a fundamental process governing organogenesis. This COE also aims to encourage young scientists in a wide variety of research fields of life sciences by providing multidisciplinary and interactive research environment. This program is one of the 28 selected programs in the field of life sciences, and recognized as a top-ranked program in the mid-term evaluations. We have established “COE liaison laboratory” to create multidisciplinary and interactive research environment and to encourage young scientists.