Projects

IMS collaborates with DMP to develop innovative new pharmaceuticals and medical technologies by facilitating the transfer of basic research within the institute. DMP was founded in RIKEN in 2010 in order to support all phases of development of new therapeutics, from the discovery of promising targets to the identification of potential lead compounds, such as small molecules and antibodies, and the acquisition of intellectual property rights to drugs and technologies that can then be brought to the development phase.

To achieve effective progress in this area, DMP established nine Drug Discovery Basic Units, in which the types of studies being performed are organized according to the expertise of each PI. IMS contributes to this effort in several ways, including by setting up a facility for the development of antibody drugs, the Drug Discovery Antibody Platform Unit. In addition, IMS now has seven collaborative programs with DMP: Artificial adjuvant vector cells (Shin-ichiro Fujii), Cancer therapy with iPS-derived NKT cells (Haruhiko Koseki), Cancer therapy with NKT cells (Hiroshi Ohno, P1), Drugs for allergic diseases (Masato Kubo), Leukemia treatment mAb targeting leukemic stem cells (Fumihiko Ishikawa), neutralizing mAb for HBV infection (Daiki Miki) and therapeutic mAb for IBD (Takashi Saito). The preclinical study of the Artificial adjuvant vector cell project for cancer therapy has been completed and, therefore, Fujii et al. are preparing for an investigator-initiated clinical trial.