Window to Japan
The conditions of the international tournament which is part of Japan’s „Robot New Strategy“ will be announced in 2016, a pre-torunament will be held in 2018, and the finals are due in 2020. NEDO news release, December 25, 2015
Five clinical studies will include diabetes-related stem-cell transplantations, treatment of severe familial hypercholesterolemia and hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation for the treatment of drug-resistant CMV. The studies will be done at Fukushima Medical University, Nagoya University and Sun-Field Clinic, Tokyo Nikkei Biotech, December 25, 2015
The public-private partnership which is supported by 22 companies, NAIST, RIKEN and many universities will organize a collaborative screening consortium (drug-discovery innovation and screening consortium, DISC) based on 200,000 compounds from these companies. One aspect will also be to develop drugs for rare diseases. AMED news release, December 24, 2015
A group at RIKEN found through experiments on Arabidopsis thaliana that Ky-2, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, enhanced high-salinity stress tolerance in this plant. Ky-2 activates the transcription of AtSOS1, a sodium antiporter, by increasing histone acetylation doi 10.1093/pcp/pcv199 RIKEN news release, December 24, 2015
Partner is Anikom Holdings, Japan’s largest pet insurance with links to 6000 animal hospitals in Japan. Business targets are the development and provision of cell treatment (heterologous or autologous) of fractures, diabetes etc. Fujifilm holds 51 % of the JV, and service will start in 2018. Anikom news release, December 21, 2015
The new company, Ajinomoto Althea Inc., will focus on GMP-compliant production of biopharmaceuticals based on the Corynebacterium glutamicum expression system developed by Ajinomoto Althea news release, December 11, 2015
As Avantium is preparing to build its first production plant of 2,5-furan dicarboxylic acid (FDCA), it has rreached agreement with Mitsui & Co. that the latter will be a major promotor for this substitute of PET in Japan and beyond. Mitsui sees good chances to co-develop packaging material from this source to a high-quality standard […]
The sheet-type sensor contains countless sensors 90 µm in diameter covered by platinum octaethylporphyrin as an oxygen-quenchable phosphorescent sensor. By using the oxygen content and the measurement time, the oxygen consumption kinetics of the cells present in the closed space of the sheet can be calculated. PLOS One DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143774
Following expert discussions, clinical application for each type of cell (clinical studies or trials) are now scheduled as follows (in parentheses the schedules announced in February 2013). 2016 or 2017: dopamine-producing nerve cells (2016-2018) 2018: neural stem cells guideline (within 2018) 2016-2017: cornea (within 2017) 2014: retinal pigment epithelium (2014-2015) 2018-2019: visual cells (2016-2017) 2017: […]
The cells will be taken from a total of 10 patients oral mucosa ane processed in the cell processing facility of Tokyo Women’s Medical University and will later be transplanted into the patients who suffer from superficial esophageal cancer. Endoscopic surgery which is presently applied is extremely painful. Cellseed is also negotiating with the Swedish […]