The test pond with 5 m diameter is located in Kitakyushu and has achived outdoor stability of 307 days in 2014. The program is done under a NEDO project jointly with JGC Co. Nikkei Biotech news release, May 29, 2015
RIKEN team finds blood-pressure-reducing sulfur compound in Asparagus
Using angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory test as a screening for sulfur-containing metabolites of Asparagus, the group of Kazuki SAITO could identify asparaptine as an active ingredient. RIKEN news release, May 26, 2015
RIKEN – Max-Planck – Imperial College London joint team discovers binding of human gut lectin to Mycobacterium tuberculosis
The groups of Yoshiki YAMAGUCHI at RIKEN, Peter Seeberger at MPI of Colloids and Interfaces in Potsdam-Golm and TEN Feizi at Imperial College London have discovered that lectin ZG16p present in human intestines binds to phosphatidylinositol mannoside, a surface glycolipid of M. tuberculosis and modelled the interaction at the molecular level. The finding may be […]
RIKEN team succeeds to stabilize hirudin and a Fab fragment by introducing bulky phenylalanine residues
The team of Kensaku SAKAMOTO at RIKEN Yokohama has modified an E. coli strain to incorporate phenylalanine modified by bulky residues such as azide or sulfonate. To this end, 178 UAG codons were reassigned to synthetic amino acids by expressing the specific pairs of UAG-reading tRNA and aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase. As a result, hirudin molecules sulfonated […]
RIKEN group uses 3D NMR analysis at 1,3 GHz for global algae biomass analysis
The team of Jun KIKUCHI at RIKEN’s NMR center in Yokohama has used 3D solid NMR in a pulsed mode to analyze the composition of Euglena algae. Major polysaccharide components and other useful material such as unsaturated fatty acids could be determined. RIKEN news release, May 15, 2015
Mitsubishi Life Sciences Institute (LSII) acquires Clio, a bioventure around Muse cells
Muse cells (multi-lineage differentiating stress enduring cell), a type of non-tumorigenic pluripotent stem-cells recently discovered by Profesor Dezawa at Tohoku University, have already been used by LSI Medience for the preparation of diagnostic cardiomyocytes. Future plans include clinical trials in acute myocardial infarction. The prize is said to amount to „several billion Yen“. Mitsubishi Kaiteki […]
Japanese Competence Centers in Bioinformatics and Computational Biology: A primer for European SMEs
This report is accessible free of cost to EU companies which have registered to the “EU Business in Japan” website as a member via: http://www.eubusinessinjapan.eu/user/register Download the Table of Contents of this article
RIKEN presents GENESIS, a massively parallel molecular dynamics software for biomolecules
Based on RIKEN’s supercomputer, the highly parallel software will allow high-speed molecular dynamics simulation for systems composed of 100 million atoms simulating a cellular environment. Details will be published in WIREs Computational Molecular Science, doi: 10.1002/wcms.1220 RIKEN news release, May 8, 2015
NEDO signs license agreement with Dutch Xilloc Medical on 3D printer for manufacturing artificial bones
Xilloc Medical, Maastricht, will register the product under the European Medical Device Directive 93/42 NEDO news release, May 7, 2015
Nikon purchases Healios, a regenerative medicine company, and enters into a strategic business alliance with Lonza
Nikon, having already established a product line for cell regeneration equipment (“BioStation CT”), has acquired Healios, a spin-off of RIKEN’s Center for Developmental Biology in Kobe. Healios is centered on the development of regenerative medicine based on iPS cells. Nikon has also entered into a strategic business alliance with Lonza for global manufacturing of regenerative […]