Japan Newsletter July 2015

 Newsletter 47 (July 2015) 1. New Technologies Kaneka sells first multi-­‐layer graphen material to high-­‐energy particle accelerator KEK -­‐ JP200150731 The material of the particle accelerator must withstand temperaturs of 3000 °C and exhibit high electric and ther-­‐
mal conductivity. Thickness of the multilayer graphene will be about 1/2 of the thickness of the raw material film. Therefore, the multi-­‐layer graphene produced with a thickness of about 1μm requires a starting polymer film material with a thickness of about 2μm. More details about the task and the project can be provided. Request a quote for deeper information Japan’s „Bitbrain initiative“ starts „Healthcare Brain Challenge“, some 30 companies to participate -­‐ JP20150731a With in the ImPACT program of the Japanese government addres-­‐
sing brain research in view of consumer applications, a Healthcare Brain Challenge has been started as a subproject which targets measures to keep brains healthy. Developments will include brain-­‐related diets which enhance cognitive function, improvements of homes for sound sleep etc. RIKEN and Kyoto University will participate by doing MRI-­‐based measure-­‐
ments on brain sections which are involved in such functions. Details on the Bitbrain initia-­‐
tive, targets and participants can be provided. Request a quote for deeper information 1 © Bio4Business D-70569 Stuttgart Germany
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Team at Tohoku University develops small and highly sensitive magnetocardiograph device which operates at room temperature. -­‐ JP20150724 In the equipment developed by Prof. Yasuo ANDO and supported by Konica-­‐Minolta, an array of highly sensitive tunnel magneto de-­‐
vices (TMR) which could replace the super-­‐
conductive quantum interference devices which require Helium cooling and special facili-­‐
ties. Improvements are due to the use of a new material which is 1000 times more sensitive as compared to standard magneto-­‐resistance materials. The main application will be in the sensitive diagnosis of heart diseases. Details on the materials used and the sensitivity of the instrument can be provided. Request a quote for deeper information NEDO starts project on next-­‐generation industrial robots -­‐ JP20150723 The goal of the 5 year program is to develop robots which can better interact with hu-­‐
mans, e. g., by olfactory sensors chips which recognize humans. Among the more than 20 partners in this program are the University of Tokyo, Sumitomo Chemical and Kanagawa Academy of Science and Technology (KAST). Prototype sensor chips („super sensors“) which are linked to actuators steering a ro-­‐
bot device have already been established. Details on the program, on preliminary results and on the participating companies can be provided. Request a quote for deeper information 2 © Bio4Business D-70569 Stuttgart Germany
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Next-­‐generation natural products chemistry (N2PC) research association formed -­‐ JP20150714 25 companies and 3 public institutions have agreed to form a research association which pools natural products librariers in search for new pharmaceuticals. The association also provides services to academic researchers. Details on the members and the strategy of this research association can be provided. Request a quote for deeper information Alhytec Co. develops prototype to generate hydrogen from aluminum waste, NEDO support -­‐ JP20150710 In collaboration with Asahi Printing Co., the company has validated a prototype in technical scale which dry-­‐distills Aluminum from Al-­‐containing waste as Al-­‐covered paper, separating out pure Al and using it as a catalyst in a hydrogen generator. The pilot plant results shows that 900 t of Al-­‐containing waste can produce the equivalent of 1,7 Mill. kWh of energy. A plant is under construction and will be operational in 2016. Details on the process, the sca-­‐
le and next steps can be provided. Request a quote for deeper information Kyoto University’s CiRA starts single-­‐cell stem cell analysis -­‐ JN20150701 The program is under Wataru FUJIBUCHI and will eventually try to set minimum informati-­‐
on standards for determining the differentiation of iPS-­‐derived stem cells. Details on the program and on the standards which are explored can be provided. Request a quote for deeper information 2. General Information 31.07.2015 -­‐ RIKEN researchers report PET-­‐imaging of vitamin B1 metabolism in mice using 11C-­‐labeled compound The group of Shinji NINOMIYA at RIKEN Yokohama carried out organic synthe-­‐
sis of vitamin B1 (half life 20,4 min) and succeeded to demonstrate the metabolism of this tagged vitamin in mice using PET. RIKEN news release, July 31, 2015 3 © Bio4Business D-70569 Stuttgart Germany
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31.07.2015 -­‐ Chiba University group finds molecular trigger for inflammatory diseases in obese mice The group of Toshinori NAKAYAMA and Yusuke EN-­‐
DO of Chiba University Medical Research Institute identified fatty acid synthese ACC1 as a strong candidate to cause autoimmune diseases in obese people. Based on transcriptional analysis of obese vs. normal mice, candidate genes for an inflammatory pathway were observed and later confirmed in the analysis of related gene expression in obese vs. normal-­‐weight humans. JST news release, July 31, 2015 31.07.2015 -­‐ Ezaki Glico starts sales of “Breakfast BifiX Yoghurt” by September 2015 The product, based on Bifidobacterium lactis GCL2505, is claimed to improve the stomach and intestinal invironment and a FOSHU application has been filed. Nikkei Biotech news release, July 31, 2015 31.07.2015 -­‐ Kaneka will start breast reconstruction therapy clincial trials based on adipose-­‐derived stem cells, cooperation with Cell Port Clinic Yokohama Based on technology by Kaneka’s subsidiary BioMaster (cultivation of autologous adipo-­‐
se-­‐derived stem cells), Cell Port Clinic Yokohama will start breast reconstruction therapy for cancer patients. Studies will follow the new Law on Ensuring the Safety of Regenerative Medicine issued in November 2014. Kaneka news release, July 31, 2015 4 © Bio4Business D-70569 Stuttgart Germany
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31.07.2015 -­‐ Barley cultivation started 10.000 years ago in the Near East and reached Japan about 3000 years ago: NIAS Based on SNP-­‐analysis of the Btr1 and BTr2 genes in 529 specimen of barley collected from all over the world, it came out that barley was first cultivated in Mesopotamia about 10.000 years ago and reached Japan via China about 3.000 years ago. NIAS news release, July 31, 2015 27.07.2015 -­‐ RIKEN FANTOM consortium reaches milestone in analysis of human cell-­‐cell interac-­‐
tion network RIKEN Yokohamas team around Piero Carninci has published a draft network of lig-­‐
and-­‐receptor mediated multicellular signaling in humans. This may also have applications in receptor-­‐directed drug design. RIKEN news release, July 27, 2015 27.07.2015 -­‐ Lotte eucalyptus-­‐containing Xylitol chewing gum obtains FOSHU status, forms “oral protection consortium” with Oral Care Co. The data supporting suppression of gingivitis and plaque through eucalyptus extracts will be presented at this consortium on July 28 in a joint symposium. Lotte news release, July 27, 2015 24.07.2015 -­‐ Society of Gene Therapy renamed “Japan Society of Gene and Cell Therapy” With this decision, to be enacted from Sept. 2015, the society follows the moves by the Eu-­‐
ropean and US sister societies. Nikkei Biotech news release, July 24, 2015 24.07.2015 -­‐ NEDO signs MOU with Speyer on “smart community” program to reduce energy cost Speyer is looking to optimize costs originating from a grid where subsidized solar power is overprized. A NEDO consortium made up from NEDO and NTT DoCoMo, NTT Facilities, Hitachi Chemical Co and Hitachi Information & Communication Engineering has developed a home energy management system (HEMS) with a focus on heat pumps which now will be tailored to include input from solar energy in order to optimize energy cost. The project 5 © Bio4Business D-70569 Stuttgart Germany
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which is supported from Stadtwerke Speer and Speyer City is thought to benefit both sides in developing renewable energy further. NEDO news release, July 24, 2015 24.07.2015 -­‐ Takara Bio to cooperate with Advanced Center for Tissue Engineering Co. on „dental pulp cell bank“ Dental pulp cells are easily collected from extracted teeth and may provide useful in the field of regenerative medicine. Takara Bio will participate in establishing methods for cryo-­‐
preservation, culture development etc. Takara Bio news release, July 24, 2015 24.07.2015 -­‐ Central Institute of Experimental Animals and INSERM develop chimeric mice with human liver as a malaria infection model Liver-­‐humanized (LH) TK-­‐NOG mice were inoculated with Plasmodium falciparum sporozoi-­‐
tes, killed at different time points, and their livers were analysed for the presence of para-­‐
sites by immunofluorescent staining, providing evidence for a full life cycle of the parasite. The developments were jointly done with France’s INSERM based on the TK-­‐NOG mouse developed by the Central R&D Labs. Nature July 24, 2015, doi:10.1038/ncomms8690 23.07.2015 -­‐ NEDO: demonstration project for smart community project in Lisbon, Portugal, on energy management In this project, supported by NTT Data Corporation, Daikin Industries and Japan Research Institute, Inc., the National Energy Institute of Geology of Portugal (LNEG) will cooperate for 3 years to establish an automatic demand response to energy consumption in selected household of Lisbon. In addition, a system will be built which shifts demand from the high-­‐power procurement price time zone to a lower time zone. NEDO news release, July 23, 2015 6 © Bio4Business D-70569 Stuttgart Germany
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22.07.2015 -­‐ Japanese team develops barcoding of > 230 fish species from environmental DNA Using water samples from the Kuroshio aquarium in Okinawa, a technique was developed to analyze the diversity of fish in the aquarium by environmental DNA sequencing. The me-­‐
thod is based on primers which pair with conserved sequences common to all 30.000 fish species. JST news release, July 22, 2015 22.07.2015 -­‐ Micro-­‐needle patch shows good efficiency as vaccination tool: Osaka University The group around Shinsaku NAKAGAWA at Osaka University has found that vaccination can be effectively done when replacing injection of vaccines by microneedles embedded in a hyaluronic acid-­‐based cushion which eventually dissolves. The microneedles pierce the ou-­‐
termost layer of skin and dissolve embedded vaccine into the body. Tests with volunteers applying various avian flu and influenza vaccines were successful. China Bio news release, July 22, 2015 7 © Bio4Business D-70569 Stuttgart Germany
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22.07.2015 -­‐ NEDO supplies 11 EV buses and EV charging facilities to Putraya City, Malaysia In the framework of NEDO’s “smart community program”, NEDO has chosen Putraya City as a hub to introduce EV bus systems in a tropical climate. Toshiba Corporation, PUES Co., Ha-­‐
setekku, and Oriental Consultants Co. will support this project. Ultrarapid charging of 10 min will be provided. NEDO news release, July 22, 2015 21.07.2015 -­‐ NEDO starts first smart community demonstration project in Canada In this project designed for Oshawa City and organized in collaboration with Oshawa Power and Utilities Co. (OPUC), Tabuchi Electric Co, under a NEDO contract, will install controllable hybrid inverter systems, solar panels and storage batteries in 30 houses of Oshawa. In Os-­‐
hawa, Ontario, power failure occurs more than 200 times throughout the year due to frost damage, and stable power supply has become a major issue. NEDO news release, July 21, 2015 17.07.2015 -­‐ NIPRO develops bag system for mass culture of hematopoietic stem cells Nipro has licensed-­‐in a patent for autologous bone marrow mesenchymal stem cells from Sapporo Medical University and wants to add a bag system to its culture system based on adherent cells Nipro website, Nikkei Biotech July 17, 2015 17.07.2015 -­‐ Team at Kyoto University succeeds to generate human germ cells from pluripotent stem cells in vitro A team at Kyoto University around Mitinoru Saitou and including CiRA succeded to differen-­‐
tiate in vitro human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) into incipient mesoderm-­‐like cells (iMeLCs), which robustly generated human primordial germ cell-­‐like cells (hPGCLCs) that could be purified using the surface markers EpCAM and INTEGRINα6. JST news release, July 17, 2015 15.07.2015 -­‐ Osaka University Venture starts Epigeneron, an epigenetic drug discovery company The key technology of Epigeneron is locus-­‐specific chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP). 8 © Bio4Business D-70569 Stuttgart Germany
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Nikkei Biotech news release, July 15, 2015 14.07.2015 -­‐ MHLW: 12 locations now have permission for human cell culture processing techno-­‐
logy, and 1748 more applications are being registered. Nikkei Biotech, July 14, 2015 14.07.2015 -­‐ Team at Chiba University develops artificial biosynthetic pathway for axtaxanthin The group around Daisuke UMENO has developed a technique to construct artificial bio-­‐
synthetic pathways from non-­‐specific enzymes. Based on the assembly of a six-­‐enzyme pa-­‐
thway in E. coli and judicious matching of engineered size-­‐selectivity variants of the first two enzymes, branching into undesired side-­‐products could be suppressed and, after ex-­‐
tension of the pathway by further enzymes, led to a highly selective pathway for astaxa-­‐
nthin. JST news release, July 14, 2015 10.07.2015 -­‐ “Initiatives for Next-­‐Generation Aviation Fuels”, Tokyo announces roadmap to use biomass-­‐derived aviation fuel by Tokyo Olympics 2020 The business plan calls for optimizing technologies for aviation fuel production from muni-­‐
cipal waste, microalgae cultivation, natural oil, waste food oil, non-­‐edible and wood bio-­‐
mass until 2020 to an extent that a demonstration program can be installed during the To-­‐
kyo Olympics and Parolympics 2020. Key members of the consortium are the University of Tokyo, Boeing Company, Japan Airlines, Nippon Cargo Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Narita International Airport Corporation and the Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. http://aviation.u-­‐tokyo.ac.jp/inaf/roadmap_en.pdf 9 © Bio4Business D-70569 Stuttgart Germany
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09.07.2015 -­‐ Mandom Co. starts research program with Osaka University on regenerative medical technology for cosmetics The target of the cooperation will be to develop functional cosmetics and regenerative me-­‐
dical technologies. The focus is on stem cell culture techniques and tissue reconstruction concerning skin and skin appendages. Mandom Co. news release, July 9, 2015 06.07.2015 -­‐ Hokkaido Bioethanol liquidates business, not profitable without subsidies The company established by various cooperatives and supported by Mitsubishi was estab-­‐
lished in 2007 in Shimizu, Hokkaido. Originally based on sugar beet as C-­‐source, business was troubled by poor beet harvests and a growing reluctance to use edible raw materials for gasoline production. With growing operating losses and reduced public support, the shareholders decided in June to liquidate the company. Nikkei Biotech news release, June 25, 2015 06.07.2015 -­‐ RIKEN: endosymbiotic bacteria may help termites to degrade lignocellulose A team at RIKEN’s Biorsource Center has succeeded in genome sequencing of an endosym-­‐
biont close to the Dinenympha genus whose DNA could be isolated from protists in termite gut. The genome shows sequences indicating the capacity to degrade lignocellulose. The authors presume that the endosymbionts support degradation of lignocellulose in termite gut to acetic acid, thus providing an energy source to their host. RIKEN news release, July 7, 2015 06.07.2015 -­‐ Collagen vitrigel in bandage films: a promising material for the treatment of skin injuries. A team around Toshiaki TAKEZAWA of Saga University and the Nati-­‐
onal Institute of Agrobiological Sciences have developed a bandage material based on collagen vitrigel, containing no free water, which in animal experiments led to good healing properties without leaving scars. The development is done in collaboration with Yutoku Phar-­‐
maceutical Industry and Kanto Chemical Co. NIAS news release, June 2015 10 © Bio4Business D-70569 Stuttgart Germany
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03.07.2015 -­‐ Tohoku Medical Megabank announces completion of omics data of first 501 healthy Japanese In the long-­‐term program to investigate genetic and proteome information of the Japanese relevant for a personalized medicine, the Tohoku Medical Megabank system announced that they have introduced the omics data of the first 501 persons, healthy volunteers, into the relevant database. Nikkei Biotech news release, July 7, 2015 03.07.2015 -­‐ RIKEN group finds candidate genetic mutations for long QT syndrome Long QT syndrome (LQTS) is an arrhythmogenic disorder that can lead to sudden death. Using whole exome sequencing analysis of 59 LQTS and 61 unaffected individuals in 35 fa-­‐
milies and 138 unrelated LQTS cases, 92 candidate mutations in 88 genes for 23 of the 35 families were identified. RIKEN news release, July 3, 2015 01.07.2015 -­‐ Jichi Medical School starts first gene therapy clinical study on AADC deficiency The patient at Yamagata Medical University is a 15 year old boy, and a viral gene carrier for the aromatic amino acid decarboxylase gene (AADC) is used. 16 similar treatments in Tai-­‐
wan are reported partially successful. Yomiuri Shinbun, July 2, 2015 01.07.2015 -­‐ RIKEN installs 1020 MHz NMR In a cooperation among JEOL, Kobe Steel, the National Institute of Material Science and RIKEN, the strongest NMR magnet pro-­‐
vding 1020 MHz (24.0 Tesla) was installed at RIKEN Yokohama. The magnet is 5 m high and weighs 15 tons, it is cooled by liquid helium. Applications will be in complex proteins, polysacchari-­‐
des and whole cells. RIKEN news release, July 1, 2015 11 © Bio4Business D-70569 Stuttgart Germany
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