Kyoto University’s Scientific Strengths

Kyoto University has an illustrious history when it comes to scientific discoveries. In 1992, Nobel Prize winner Tasuku Honjo of Kyoto University and his team discovered the Programmed Cell Death protein 1 (PD-1). In collaboration with Japanese pharma Ono Pharmaceutical, the university developed what would become Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Opdivo (nivolumab).

Kyoto University is also home to Shinya Yamanaka, a scientist who was honored with a Nobel Prize in 2012 for demonstrating that mature cells can be reprogrammed into pluripotent cells. Yamanaka has remained in academia, but Kyoto spun out several companies based on iPS cell technology.

ReproCELL, for example, was founded in 2009 and became the first company globally to launch an iPSC-derived research product, and Heartseed Inc., has Phase I/II trials studying iPSC-derived cardiomyocytes for the treatment of heart failure.

Kyoto University itself took steps to promote the commercialization of its research, in 2008 launching iPS Academia Japan, Inc., a one-stop shop for the university’s iPS cell-related intellectual property.

Kyoto University’s Center for iPS Cell Research and Application has continued Yamanaka’s work, developing hundreds of iPS cell types for various diseases and cell stocks and licensing these for use in clinical trials worldwide.

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