Nobel for stem cell work boon for biotech industry

Thursday, Nov. 8, 2012

The recent Nobel Prize recognition of work on artificially derived multipurpose stem cells by Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka is likely to further boost use of the technology in the country's biotech and related industries.

It is hoped that his research for engineering mature cells, such as skin and blood, to grow into any type of body tissue will help in the development of new drugs and spur business opportunities for regenerative medicine, free from the controversy associated with stem cells from human embryos.

Research company Fuji-Keizai Group says the Japanese market for regenerative medicine reached 51.4 billion in 2011 and is likely to top 100 billion in 2020 if more products are put on the market and their clinical applications are promoted.

The 50-year-old Kyoto University professor won this year's Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine jointly with John Gurdon of Britain, professor emeritus at Cambridge University, for the discovery that "mature, specialized cells can be reprogrammed to become immature cells capable of developing into all tissues of the body."

Major drugmaker Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma Co. in 2011 began research with Kyoto University's Center for iPS Cell Research and Application, headed by Yamanaka, to develop treatments of hard-to-cure rare diseases that affect a limited number of people.

The term iPS cell was coined by Yamanaka. It is short for induced pluripotent stem cell.

The research aims to pin down the mechanisms of these diseases using iPS cells and then work out procedures to suppress the progression of such diseases.

It is generally said a new drug takes at least 10 years and tens of billions of yen to develop, including costs and time needed for basic research and clinical trials.

Through the introduction of iPS cells, potent drug candidates can be narrowed down and development sped up, curbing R&D expenditures.

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Nobel for stem cell work boon for biotech industry