When I was a student, I watched the birth of iPS cells up close.

Seeing the transformation of long, thin skin cells into round, shiny pluripotent stem cells astonished me and made me want to contribute to the development of medicine by applying these iPS cells to the treatment of diseases that cannot be cured with conventional technologies.

I continue to hold on to this dream today by working on the development of cell therapy products.

When I joined Takeda Pharmaceuticals, I conducted basic research on the production of pancreatic cells from iPS cells with the aim of developing cell therapies for patients with type 1 diabetes who suffer from hypoglycemic attacks.

The research at the time was carried out by several people using small culture dishes, but the desired cells could not be produced. Later, a project to research and develop iPS cell technology into innovative therapies was initiated, and we were able to conduct joint research with CiRA.

The number of people involved has increased more than tenfold. The CiRA Foundation has contributed by providing us high-quality iPS cells, which has helped our research to progress dramatically.

We are now able to stably produce differentiated cells with a high level of efficiency and purify them in large culture vessels.

In order to make our iPS cell technology a common medical treatment, there are still a number of issues to be addressed, such as technologies for proper storage and delivery.

There is also the high cost of production and quality control.

I transferred to the spin-out venture Orizuru Therapeutics in hope of solving these problems as soon as possible.

Together with related companies, we are working to solve these problems and deliver safe iPS cell-based therapies to patients as soon as possible.