Research Centers for the BEANS Project (Part I)
1. Life BEANS Center (the University of Tokyo)

2. 3D BEANS Center (the University of Tokyo)

The MEMS devices that are expected to become essential in
the fields of health, medical care, and the environment will be
implantable medical devices for around-the-clock healthmanagement, ultra-high-sensitivity on-site prevention anddiagnostic devices, on-site environmental control devices for
improving and preserving the environment, and energy
harvesting devices for the effective utilization of natural energy.
However, in order to manufacture such devices, it isnecessary to develop processes for fusing the desirable
functions possessed by biomaterials and organic matter(biomolecules, cells, tissues, microbes, and synthetic organicmolecules) with conventional materials used in current MEMS.
In addition to the members involved in MEMS fields, ourresearch center has assembled researchers from health carebusinesses, researchers active in biotechnology fields forstudying regenerative medicine and proteins, for example, anddoctors from university hospitals, all of who work day and nighton research for fusing heterogeneous fields.
These efforts have continuously produced research findingsthat are fascinating enough to be covered by the news media,
such as a cell doll and fluorescent gel beads, even though wehave been conducting research under the BEANS Project forless than one year. While we have plans to continue upgradeson the research facilities, the center is steadily conducting
studies on seeds needed to produce even more fascinating
results in the future.
As we have plans to add more people to the staff in
October, you can expect that the Life BEANS Center willcontinue to grow stronger.

The 3D BEANS Center comprises seven companies, fouruniversities, and one research institute and may be
distinguished from the other research centers by the large
number of members–more than half of the staff–who aredispatched from companies. It may be accurate to say thatthese employees gradually became acclimated to the lifestyleand culture at the university over a period of about one year,
since they were forced into a lifestyle quite different from thecorporate environment and culture to which they had become
accustomed. During last year, the inaugural year of the BEANS
Project, most of our duties were far removed from research,such as outfitting the laboratory that included construction of
the clean room and setting up equipment. On many occasion it
seemed that we would never reach our intended purpose ofconducting research. However, things have now settled down,
and we have sufficient equipment installed for performing ourown work. Although overdue, we are now progressing slowly
but surely and will have much more to show for our efforts inthe near future.
We have already begun implementing joint research
projects with other research centers in the BEANS Project thathave greater needs, since the 3D BEANS Center primarilystudies etching, film formation, and other technologies rooted
in semiconductor processes, and it is likely that ourcollaborations will continue to increase. For example, we havebegun fusing our low-damage dry etching and supercritical fluid
deposition (SCFD) technique with the organic film formation
technologies practiced at the Life BEANS Kyushu Center. By
utilizing our low-damage dry etching in the Kyushu center’sorganic film deposition, we have been able to form 3D
structures never before seen, indicating that this could lead to anew processing method. In order to accelerate our research, weplan to install special equipment for etching organic films at theLife BEANS Kyushu Center in the near future. Some of theresearchers at the 3D BEANS Center will be traveling toKyushu to help set up the equipment. We are also making
steady progress on a study for deposition of the unique organic
films at Life BEANS Kyushu using our supercritical fluid
deposition (SCFD) technique. Further, while in fields otherthan research we have worked with the Life BEANS Center,with which we share a lounge at the University of Tokyo, thisyear joint research projects between the two centers have been
proposed as we gradually get on track to achieve the primary
BEANS objective of fusing dissimilar fields. Hereafter, the 3D
BEANS Center will continue in its efforts to serve as a bridge
for the fusion of heterogeneous fields.

R&D conducted at the Life BEANS Center(1) Process technologies for nano-interface fusion
The Life BEANS Center is developing interface control
processes for controlling the orientation of materials andachieving selective placement, immobilization, and high-density
coating of materials in order to utilize functions likebiocompatibility, specific molecular recognition, high-efficiency
multi-stage reactions, and high-efficiency energy harvesting. We
are also conducting R&D on processes for forming biomaterials
with long-term stability, such as hydrogels and artificial lipid
bilayers with high biocompatibility.
(2) Structuring of bio/organic materials
The center will establish processes for expressing advanced
cell functions through the structuring of bio/organic materials
and will acquire technical guidelines for reproducibility anduniformity of process technologies such as processes for
producing 3D heterostructures of cells using their capacity for
self-assembly.

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