SUZUKI KOJI

Director, Research & Development
Division, JKiC

Breaking down barriers betweten industry and academia and between medicine and engineering to aim for innovation is the mission of the JKiC

The world’s medical treatments and pharmaceuticals are at a turning point in that they not only have to fight serious diseases but must also respond to provide appropriate medical care and pharmaceuticals for an each individual. Reflecting this condition, both industry and academia are required to conduct research suitable for this objective. JRS Corporation is contributing to people and society through chemistry and materials. Our corporate climate allows us to earnestly and carefully tackle everything from designing functional molecules to manufacturing products, and in recent years it has shifted its development activities to the life science field. Keio University School of Medicine and Hospital have followed the idea of recommendation of “science” in Yukichi Fukuzawa’s work, An Encouragement of Learning, by leading the world’s most advanced research on medicine and medical care.

The JSR-Keio University Medical and Chemical Innovation Center (JKiC) is a space in which researchers in the field of chemistry and medicine as well as physicians break down barriers between industry and academia and between medicine and engineering and join hands to carry out research on new medical treatments and pharmaceuticals. At the JKiC, which is located on the same site as the School of Medicine and the University Hospital, taking advantage of the merits of this location, researchers can conduct translational research, extending from basic research to application of its results to people, quickly in collaboration with industry and academia. Its principal research areas are positioned in four strategic fields (1. Precision medicine, 2. Microbiome, 3. Stem Cell Biology and Cell Based Medicine, and 4. Advanced Medical Devices) to create revolutionary technologies and products.

I, the head of the Research Department, am an employee of JSR Corporation and at the same time I am a Professor Emeritus of Keio University. I will promote joint research as I act as a bridge linking industry with academia and medicine with engineering. Companies do not know much about academia, and universities do know little about the world of industry. And medical science knows little about engineering and vise-versa. However, when these spheres come to understand each other, they will display the synergistic effects of taking advantage of each other’s strengths to generate innovation in the development of diagnostic technologies, which will lead future medical treatment, and in the development of new drugs.

JSR Corporation and Keio University aim to bring innovation to the domains of medical treatment and pharmaceuticals to build a brighter future from JKiC that integrates industry with medicine and engineering.