Startup in Japan with the aim of practical use of start-up technology in the United States
First of all, please explain the history of your company.
Aserabio Suzuki: Ascella Biosystems is a Japanese subsidiary of Ascella Biosystems, a medical device startup based in San Francisco, United States. In establishing a Japanese subsidiary, Axelmark Co., Ltd. and WiZ Co., Ltd. Partners have been jointly funded by the two companies. In order to obtain approval as a medical device in Japan, we are also conducting research and development at Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha 1 for "Innovative Diagnostic Technology for Quickly detecting Multiple Respiratory Diseases" under development at Asera.
Do you think that products released in the United States will be commercialized in Japan?
Aserabio Suzuki: In fact, it is still in the development stage in the United States, and it has not yet been commercialized. Rather, it is assumed that product development in Japan will be preceded and re-exported to the United States. The reason is that the technology developed at the U.S. headquarters is great, but because of startups, the product development is slightly delayed. In addition, since manufacturing is a specialty area for Japanese people, and the recent depreciation of the yen overlapped, we decided that it would be more efficient to develop products in Japan first, and we decided to establish a Japanese subsidiary to lead development in Japan.
When will the first product appear on the market?
Aserabio Suzuki: First of all, we are working on development with the aim of launching the market next season.
Who is currently working at Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha 1?
Mr. Aserabio Tanaka: I always work at Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha 1. Also, starting this fall, we have a new part-time researcher to work three days a week, and a total of two people are conducting research on product development. In addition, Mr. Suzuki may come to Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha 1 to conduct necessary research.
Challenge to commercialize a revolutionary respiratory infectious disease rapid diagnostic system
Please tell us more about the products currently under development.
Mr. Aserabio Suzuki: We are currently developing an innovative diagnostic technology, AscellaOne, which quickly detects multiple respiratory diseases. The device itself is very portable, with extremely high accuracy and high speed diagnostics. In Japan, we are working to obtain approval as medical devices (devices) and invitro diagnostics (reagents). However, this technology itself has a very wide range of applications, and we believe that it will be applicable to food poisoning tests in the future.
Please tell us more about the technical features and advantages of Aserawan.
Mr. Aserabio Suzuki: While conventional PCR tests need to change the temperature significantly and it takes time to test, aceraone uses an isothermal nucleic acid amplification method, which does not require temperature changes. Therefore, the inspection time is very short, about 6 minutes, and the device itself is very compact, and the inspection cost is also low. The isothermal nucleic acid amplification method is not a technology developed by Asera, and inspection equipment that uses the isothermal nucleic acid amplification method has already been put into practical use. On the other hand, Acerawan has a very short test time of about 6 minutes, which can be said to be a feature that other company products do not have. This point can be said to have been realized only with the original technology of Asera. Although typical PCR tests are highly sensitive, they require expensive equipment for testing, so samples must be sent to the testing company, and it takes one to two days for the results to be found. Conversely, antigen test kits, which are now widely used in medical settings, have high convenience, but low sensitivity was a difficult point. Aserawan is easy to test, it can be used in a sense that is the same as antigen test, and it realizes high sensitivity test similar to PCR test.
The Kashiwa-no-ha area is a place where there is a lot of greenery and you can relax between research.
Please tell us why you decided to move into Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha 1.
Mr. Aserabio Suzuki: In order to establish a Japanese subsidiary and develop products in Japan, we needed a laboratory for development, so we examined properties in various places, including Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha 1 and Shinkiba 2, and finally selected Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha 1. In the Kashiwanoha-Campus area, the atmosphere of the city is calm, and there are plenty of places to eat, etc. were also highly evaluated.
Mr. Aserabio Tanaka: The atmosphere of the whole city is good, but I also like the environment with lots of greenery. There is also a park opposite the lab, so you can refresh your tiredness from research.
Mr. Aserabio Suzuki: When I came last time, I saw Japanese racoon dog too (laughs).
Please tell us about the charm of "Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha 1" that you felt when you actually moved in.
Mr. Aserabio Suzuki: I thought that the facilities in the hall were very substantial, including the shared equipment room. In particular, for university startups, initial investment in purchasing high-priced equipment and construction is a very heavy burden, but Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha 1 has a shared equipment room in the lab, so I would be very grateful to be able to respond to setup. There is also a super-pure water production system among the common facilities, which is also very helpful. These devices are very expensive.
We want to further expand the new possibilities of our technology through matching
Do you have any issues you would like to take on at Mitsui Link Lab Kashiwa-no-ha 1?
Mr. Aserabio Suzuki: By using Aserawan's technology, we believe that it will be possible to collect epidemiological information in the city during a pandemic. For example, in order to investigate infection trends in a certain area, we can distribute our test kits to elementary schools and other places and aggregate the test results to clarify infection hotspots in the city. Aserawan can be linked with smartphones, so if you aggregate test results on the cloud through a smartphone, it will also be big data. I think it would be very interesting if such a demonstration experiment could be realized on the stage of Kashiwa-no-ha.
Mr. Hasegawa, Aserabio: Aserawan is under development for COVID-19 as a medical device and influenza detection, but we believe that it can be used as a platform technology in the future as COVID-19, various infectious diseases other than influenza, as well as food hygiene management sites. In the future, I would like to further expand the use of Aserawan by actively matching companies and researchers who have great ideas about the new uses of Aserawan. In that sense, we hope that Kashiwa-no-ha Lab will be a place for Asera to disseminate information, and a place for various proposals to fly.
Mr. Aserabio Suzuki: We are also able to conduct such tests on Aserawan and our isothermal nucleic acid technology. If you have any comments or suggestions, such as "I have discovered a new marker candidate, can I measure it with Asera One?", I would like to put it into practical use through joint research. The door is always open, so I would like you to call me anytime.
