Japan is seeking to reclaims ownership of a medical technology pioneered by one of its own Nobel laureates by committing $1.1 billion to developing therapies using induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells to regenerate damaged brain and nerve tissue.
A national symposium on the use of iPS cells for regenerative medicine held yesterday in Tokyo featured presentations by leading researchers. Among the most promising efforts include one in which Kyoto University professor Jun Takahash is using iPS cell therapy to treat Parkinson’s disease. He plans to launch in 2015 a clinical trial in which iPS cells derived from the patient’s own skin cells will be transplanted directly into the brain.
Another is Keio University professor Hideyuki Okano who is preparing for a clinical trial in four years in which he will transplant neuronal precursor cells created from iPS cells into patients two to four weeks after spinal cord injuries. Okano is also developing treatment combining cell transplants and rehabilitation for patients paralysed by spinal cord injuries.
The technique used to coax mature skin cells to return to a pluripotent state was pioneered by Kyoto University professor Shinya Yamanaka in 2007. For that work he was one of two co-recipients of the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2012.
Japan faces intense competition from several other nations in the field of stem-cell research. Its most aggressive rival will likely be South Korea. The Korean government has been far more liberal in its policies regulating stem-cell research than the US, allowing several research teams to take the lead in techniques for efficiently cultivating stem cells for therapeutic purposes.
iPS cell therapy is currently considered the most promising area of biotechnology. It is also a field that requires the disciplined labor of large numbers of highly trained technologists. For that reason the industry is likely to revolve around a rivalry among the US, Japan and S. Korea along a trajectory similar to those followed by other tech-intensive industries like semiconductors, flat-panel displays, consumer electronics, shipbuilding and autos.
