RIKEN-BSI Takeda Collaboration Center opens
RIKEN BSI and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company to work together on developing drugs for central nervous system diseases
On May 1, 2012, RIKEN (Ryoji Noyori, President) and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited (Hasegawa Yasuchika, President) opened a RIKEN BSI-Takeda Collaboration Center within the premises of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (RIKEN BSI; Susumu Tonegawa, Director).
The new center is intended to promote the sharing of knowledge and the exchange of opinions focused on not only short-term objectives but looking further to long term goals as well. It will be distinguished by a framework that fully integrates and utilizes the knowhow and technology that tends to be buried by the constraints of the kind of discipline-specific research that is typical of public research institutions and joint research projects between private corporations. Specifically, this new center will undertake the challenge of developing Japan's first drug discovery and drug development technology for central nervous system diseases for which there are currently no effective treatments.
- Background
Schizophrenia, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), and bipolar disorders are central nervous system diseases for which no effective treatments currently exist. But tackling these diseases will require more than the usual drug discovery methodologies. If breakthroughs are to be achieved, it will be necessary to also apply a variety of elemental technology such as the analysis of gene expression within specific regions of the brain, bio-imaging, electrophysiology, and optogenetics.
Since its founding in 1997, RIKEN BSI has been carrying out basic research directed at developing elemental technologies in brain science and elucidating brain functions with a focus on neural circuits. The Takeda Pharmaceutical Company has built up a considerable database for drug discovery and its significant achievements in research and development related to the therapeutic areas such as metabolic and central nervous system diseases have made it one of the leading pharmaceutical companies in the world. The two organizations have come together to take advantage of RIKEN's program for RIKEN-industry collaboration centers to create a place in which there can be a streamlined process of research and development, starting with the elucidation of the central nervous system and the search for new drug targets and moving on to the invention of new drugs. The new Collaboration Center is expected to stimulate active exchange of personnel as scientists from RIKEN BSI and Takeda Pharmaceutical Company work closely together to forge new directions in research and achieve a far-reaching integration of knowledge, information and technology.
- Outline
(1) Center name and directorRIKEN BSI-Takeda Collaboration Center
(2) Location
(BTaC: RIKEN BSI-Takeda Collaboration Center)
Director: Tadaharu Tsumoto (RIKEN BSI Deputy Director)On premises of RIKEN BSI (2-1 Hirosawa, Wako, Saitama)
(3) DurationFrom May 1, 2012 to March 20, 2017
(4) OperationsBuilding of a drug discovery platform
Seeking future candidate compounds and developing infrastructure technology for research leading to clinical trials
Seeking new drug targets and carrying out functional analyses
Research new approaches to understanding disease and work to discover new drugs to treat central nervous system diseases
- Contact:
- RIKEN Brain Science Promotion Division
- Tel: +81-(0)48-467-9757 / Fax: +81-(0)48-462-4914
- Public Relations Office
- Tel: +81-(0)48-467-9272 / Fax: +81-(0)48-462-4715
- Mail: koho@riken.jp
About the RIKEN Brain Science Institute
The RIKEN Brain Science Institute (RIKEN BSI) was established as an institute at RIKEN in October 1997, to answer a growing need in society for cutting-edge brain science research. Since its establishment, BSI has attracted promising scientists domestically and internationally and brought together diverse research and human resources, and today enjoys an international reputation as an innovative center for brain science.
Research at BSI integrates a wide range of disciplines including medicine, biology, physics, technology, information science, mathematical science, and psychology. BSI's research objectives cover individual organisms, behavior, microscopic molecular structures of the brain, neurons, neurocircuits, cognition, memory, learning, language acquisition, and robotics.
About RIKEN's Collaboration Centers Program
This program was initiated in February 2007. Collaboration centers established within RIKEN centers and institutes provide the framework for RIKEN and corporate scientists to work together on integrated research and development of medium and long-term project proposals made by private industry. In contrast to the Integrated Collaborative Research Program, this program allows for the setting of medium and long-term goals, and each collaboration center is named after the partner corporation. The RIKEN-industry collaboration centers are meant to strengthen RIKEN's ties to private industry, enable RIKEN and corporate scientists to pioneer new fields of research, and contribute to the fostering of valuable human resources for both RIKEN and its corporate partners.
| Center | Established |
|---|---|
| RIKEN BSI-OLYMPUS Collaboration Center (BOCC) | 2007 June |
| RIKEN-TRI Collaboration Center for Human-Interactive Robot Research | 2007 August |
| RIKEN BSI-TOYOTA Collaboration Center (BTCC) | 2007 November |
| RIKEN RSC-Rigaku Collaboration Center | 2010 December |