News of the month

https://fermelanta.com https://bio.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/column/16/021500017/080100292/ Firmelanta is a startup from Ishikawa Prefectural University that uses E. coli bacteria to create biotech products. The company is currently constructing various recombinant E. coli strains for the production of pharmaceutical and cosmetic ingredients. In addition to its own production of pharmaceutical and cosmetic ingredients using the strains it has developed, the […]

https://bio.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/news/p1/23/06/29/10868/ The general-purpose humanoid robot “Mahoro” is one of the most well-known of all experimental automation devices. Mahoro has a long history of development and was first announced in its current form in 2012. Since then, it has been gradually introduced to companies and research institutes. Mahoro excels at delicate work, and it can also […]

https://bio.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/news/p1/23/06/21/10838/ Shimadzu Corporation begins test marketing of its “Intestinal Bacteria Co-Culture Device”,  which can co-culture intestinal bacteria and intestinal epithelial cells. In recent years, the development of pharmaceuticals and foods that utilize intestinal bacteria has been gaining momentum. Research on intestinal bacteria requires reproduction of the intestinal environment consisting of intestinal microflora and intestinal epithelium, […]

https://bio.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/news/p1/23/04/25/10628/  https://www.biopalette.co.jp BioPalette is a Kobe University startup established in February 2017 based on research results from Kobe University. Professor Keiji Nishida and his research team at Kobe University’s Research Center for Advanced Biotechnology have developed “Target-AID” and “Target-G,” base-editing technologies that can rewrite bases without cutting DNA, among other genome editing technologies. Target-AID” uses […]

https://bio.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/report/16/082400016/041900285/ Across the road is a thermal power plant, and the CO2 in its exhaust gas is used to cultivate algae in photo bio reactors on 4,54 ha, with the total capacity reaching 4,060 tons (photo courtesy of Chitose Institute). C4 was established on behalf of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO), […]

https://bio.nikkeibp.co.jp/atcl/news/p1/23/03/09/10478/ The Suntory Group has released “Gut Note,” a smartphone application utilizing gut sound analysis technology which records the sound of bowel movements through the iPhone’s microphone and analyzes it using artificial intelligence (AI) to understand the state of the bowel, and combines it with information such as frequency of bowel movements and condition of […]

https://www.nedo.go.jp/news/press/AA5_101606.html In order to address labor shortages in Japan, where the working-age population is declining more rapidly than anywhere else in the world, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has developed a digital twin that can sustainably improve productivity and reduce the burden on people. The digital twin reflects in a […]

https://www.jst.go.jp/pr/announce/20230127/pdf/20230127.pdf https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-022-04367-9 A team from the University of Tokyo and the Tokyo University of Science has cultured a new type of microalgae from the water in a tank where goldfish and killifish were kept, and identified its genome sequence. The photosynthetic microalgae has only 7629 genes, the lowest number of genes among all freshwater green […]

https://www.nedo.go.jp/news/press/AA5_101598.html The University of Tokyo and INPEX Co., partners in NEDO’s project “Technology Development for the Production of Key Chemicals Using Carbon Dioxide as Raw Material” and with the support of the Research Association for Artificial Photosynthetic Chemistry Process Technology (ARPChem)  have won the first place out of 22 teams  in the competition “Fuel from […]

https://www.jst.go.jp/pr/announce/20221017/pdf/20221017.pdf Kosuke Sato and colleagues have embedded “edible information” into cookies using a 3D printer. 2D codes, or AR markers, are created through cavities when the food is printed and remain intact during baking. They can be read again when the back of the cookies are exposed to high-frequency light, and not only store data […]