About us

Drugs, chemicals and cosmetics are always tested on animals, such as rabbits, guinea pigs and monkeys, rather than on humans. These conditions result in an estimated 115.3 million animal deaths worldwide each year. In recent years, as regulations and criticism of animal testing have increased, there has been a growing need for alternative technologies to replace animal testing. In addition, animal testing cannot accurately assess or predict effects and toxicity in humans due to species differences between humans and animals.

On the other hand, traditional assessments using human primary/immortalized cells have problems such as the inability to assess interactions between tissues and the unique properties of three-dimensional structures. Therefore, research aimed at reproducing the functions of human organs in microfluidic devices fabricated using nano- and micro-technologies is attracting attention. This technology, known as microphysiological systems (MPS), makes it possible to assess physiological functions that cannot be measured by conventional methods.

One of founders, Prof. R. Yokokawa with Kyoto University, has established renal MPS containing highly functional proximal tubule cells from human iPS cells. This MPS makes it possible to evaluate renal drug transport, which was difficult to assess using conventional cultured cells. His group has also worked on evaluating new therapeutics for rare cancers, reproducing the cancer microenvironment and co-culturing with 3D tissues using perfusable vascular networks.

Based on these core technologies, we are developing MPS that  enable to predict human physiology and recapitulate human diseases. We aim to contribute to reducing the usage of experimental animals, shortening shortening of drug development times, and improving the safety assessment of
compounds.