University of Tsukuba and Astellas Pharma Inc. entered into a strategic partnership to accelerate the digitalization of drug discovery research, as well as the development of the life science ecosystem in Tsukuba and Kashiwa-no-ha.

The companies will exchange information on:

• Promotion of drug discovery and other research, and creation of new startups through industry-academia collaboration between the two parties

• Utilization of cutting-edge research equipment, drug discovery-related data and research seeds mutually owned by the two parties

• Implementation of discussions and seminars to accelerate and develop collaborative research already conducted by the two parties

• Promotion of drug discovery research and creation of new startups through exchange and communication with third-party venture company innovators in residence at SakuLab-Tsukuba

The University of Tsukuba will establish an office in Astellas’ SakuLab-Tsukuba for the Tsukuba Digital-Bio International Center where they are participating as a lead organization. The center will support researchers from different fields including medicine, biotechnology, and AI/digital analytics with drug discovery with the goal of creating a place for innovative and co-creative research through the fusion of different fields.

Yoshitsugu Shitaka, chief scientific officer at Astellas said, “We believe our scope of knowledge and experience in drug research, and our global network will pair well with the University of Tsukuba’s outstanding expertise in medicine, biotechnology, and the AI/digital field. Together we aim for further growth in the life science ecosystem in Tsukuba and the Kashiwa-no-ha areas, with SakuLab-Tsukuba as a starting point for innovation. We envision the collaboration will enable visionary ideas and specialized knowledge to converge, turbocharging the development of pioneering healthcare solutions.”

Hiroyuki Nishiyama, leader of Tsukuba Digital-Bio International Center said, “In western drug discovery ecosystems, researchers and innovators have quick and easy access to cutting-edge research results and trends in their fields of expertise. Japanese pharmaceutical companies tend to look there because they can’t obtain enough information in Japanese drug discovery ecosystems. Against this background, we have been discussing with Astellas for the past one and a half years to change the conventional frame of reference. I believe that we can flexibly and speedily formulate new joint research themes not limited to specific fields and execute efficient research by sharing our research information (seeds) and areas of research interest at Astellas. exists when translating academia research results into social implementations.”