I want to eliminate the world in which children give up on the future due to illness — I started a business with President Kishida's strong desire.
First of all, please tell us about your business.
We are a biotech venture that uses our proprietary cell editing technology developed by Director and Chief Technology Officer Hamasaki (Mr. Nobuhiko), to develop new solutions for medical issues that have never been resolved before, such as infertility treatment and investigation of the causes of genetic diseases. Hamasaki has succeeded in developing a revolutionary technology that was thought impossible at the time to directly create egg-like cells by introducing transcription factors into iPS cells (artificial pluripotent stem cells) and ES cells (embryonic stem cells). With this technology, we established our company with Representative Director Kishida (Washin-sama). Currently, we are working on mass production of ovarian cells and the creation of supporting cells surrounding ovarian cells in parallel.
Please tell us about the starting point of your business.
Originally, it goes back to the experience that our Kishida was born with hepatitis C. At the time of infection, there were still no effective treatments, so I spent a long time waiting for the emergence of new drugs, but after the emergence of new drugs in the United States, Kishida himself succeeded in treating them. However, due to the illness, he gave up the pilot's path, which had been a dream since childhood. Kishida himself is not a researcher, but he met Hamasaki, who had been studying germlines in the United States, and by implementing his technology in society, he took on the challenge of starting a business because of his natural illness.
Why did Kiyota join Dioceive?
Originally, I was a researcher, and in Academia I received a PhD in germline research. At that time, a person who was studying under a famous Japanese germ cell researcher decided to go to the United States independently, and I also moved to a U.S. research institute with him. We worked on the study of marital formation in an invitro (test jurisdiction) environment. Since then, I have been working as a researcher in the United States for three years, and what should I do now? When I thought about it, I happened to hear that Hamasaki, a researcher of germ cell, started a business with its own germ cell technology. So, when I applied for a research job, "I would like to challenge this by all means," I was hired to beat the beat.
Is the technology to directly create germ cells from iPS cells a part of your own technology?
That's right. Mouse has a short period of maturity and reaches reproductive age about 4 weeks after birth. That's why it is possible to create egg-like cells in a short period of time even in an invitro (test jurisdiction). On the other hand, humans take more than a dozen years to reach the age at which they can produce eggs. Therefore, reproducing the process of invivo (invivo) would take too much time to produce cells, and patients wishing to receive fertility treatment could not wait for such a long time. With our proprietary technology, we can shorten the production period and make it possible to create large amounts of egg-like cells.
Expectations for exchange events at Mitsui Link Lab "I'm looking forward to it now."
Please tell us about your encounter with Mitsui Link Lab Shinkiba 2.
This is a story I heard from Kishida that there were several candidate facilities, and when Kishida visited Mitsui Link Lab Shinkiba 2, I heard that when I had a tour of Mitsui Link Lab Shinkiba 2, I was surprised and decided to move in. The reason I decided on Shinkiba was good traffic access. In our case, the access environment was very important because we rent some expensive experimental equipment at external research institutions.
What kind of impressions do you have now when you actually opened your own lab in Shinkiba?
I'm almost in charge of experiments on cells at Shinkiba Lab, but it's very convenient. Especially, regardless of weekends and holidays, it is very useful that you are free to enter and leave all day. We need to work according to the schedule of the cell side, not the human side. The conference room is spacious and easy to use, and the view is wonderful, so I often use it. However, as the business is progressing smoothly and the number of researchers has increased, it has become a little narrower recently. We are now consulting with Kishida and considering expanding the scale of the lab. The advantage of Mitsui Link Lab is that it is easy to expand even when it becomes too small and does not have to move.
Thank you very much. Lastly, please tell us about your expectations for Mitsui Link Lab.
At present, some high-priced experimental equipment is being used by external research institutions, so I would appreciate it if these equipment could be used as common experimental equipment in the laboratory. I would be happy if I had the opportunity to exchange information such as exchange events. I have been doing research in academia all the time, but in academia, it was a common practice to visit the adjacent laboratories to share information and borrow reagents (laughs). Mitsui Link Lab is also looking forward to interacting with residents. It would be great especially if you had the opportunity to talk to people in a completely different field than you and know what they need. I am very excited to hear that such an exchange event will be held jointly by Mitsui Fudosan and LINK-J.