Tokyo Science Univ. robot lab targets iPS regenerative medicine

The global race around physical AI — machines that fuse AI with robotics and act autonomously in the real world — is accelerating, with the US and China pouring in large amounts of money. Japan has placed the field in its growth strategy and is focusing on medical and drug discovery applications. One front line is the Robot Future Creation Center at Tokyo Science University, opened in April, where researchers including deputy center director Motonori Kanda are working on research in which AI thinks up experimental methods and the general-purpose humanoid 'Mahoro' carries them out automatically. The system tries enormous combinations of drug amounts, procedures and timing, and AI evaluates the results to feed the next experiment.

A particularly anticipated use is regenerative medicine with iPS cells. Masayo Takahashi, who in 2014 achieved the world's first transplant of retinal cells made from a patient's own iPS cells, points out that stably producing cells in large quantities remains a challenge. If introducing robots can quantify the work and stabilize quality, it may also lead to lower treatment costs in the future. In China, humanoid robot development is advancing rapidly, and some researchers voice concern about the gap with Japan. Kanda argues that unless Japan has large-scale research bases, it could end up depending on the US and China for experimental environments in the future.

Companies are moving as well. Astellas Pharma and Yaskawa Electric have established the joint venture Cellafa Bioscience, aiming to combine two Japanese strengths — industrial robots and iPS cells — toward social implementation of regenerative medicine. Whether these efforts can actually stabilize cell quality and bring down treatment costs will likely depend on whether Japan can build the large-scale research bases that Kanda says are needed, and on whether the Astellas-Yaskawa venture can turn its combination of robotics and cells into practical treatments.