i-Newsletter 2022 summer
The launch of the incubation business at iCONM!

From the left in the front row: INOUE Mutsuko (MEXT), KIMURA Hiromichi (Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion), FUKUDA Norihiko (Mayor of Kawasaki City), Johannes Fruehauf（BioLabs, CEO）, Susan Chase（BioLabs, Vice President）, MIURA Jun (Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion), KATAOKA Kazunori (Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion)
From the left in the back row: ATSUMI Hiroshi (Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion), SUZUKI Tsuyoshi（Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion）, SAKAI Shigeki (JST), NOMURA Ryuta (CIEA), OTSUKI Mitsuyasu (Cabinet Office), UCHIDA Satoshi (Crafton Biotechnology), NOGAMI Kenichi (Metcela Inc.）On June 6th, 2022, Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion (KIIP) launched "iCONM in collaboration with BioLabs" to support life science start-ups at the Innovation
Center of NanoMedicine(iCONM) in the King SkyFront.
Also, KIIP announced a collaboration and the launch of a
new co-working facility in Tonomachi at a ceremony withBioLabs, the premier global operator of co-working laboratory facilities for high potential life science start-ups. KIIP,BioLabs, and the city of Kawasaki also celebrates BioLabs’
first step to provide co-working laboratory space in Asia.
They are now accepting applications for lab users.

ries, beautiful collaboration spaces, and excellent core facilities, such as organic chemistry, biochemical and pharmacological analysis, advanced microscopy, and animal facilities.
Through this collaboration, KIIP will combine the expertiseof BioLabs and encourage more innovation. This is a very
unique initiative to build the foundation of an ecosystem incollaboration with Kawasaki City. The ecosystem makes it
possible for start-ups to easily access global networks fromiCONM. At the ceremony,Dr. Johannes Fruehauf, CEO of BioLabs, emphasized “Byworking together to support Japanese start-ups and the innoThere are many pain-points biotech start-ups face. BioLabs
vation ecosystem, BioLabs expects iCONM to become abuilds ecosystems that empower life science entrepreneurs tomagnet for world-class biotech companies. In addition, I befocus on innovation, accelerate company growth, and maximlieve our collaboration will have significant impact on Kawaize capital efficiency by delivering best-in-class lab space,saki by stimulating job growth and continuing to build a viessential business services, a powerful network of innovators,
brant innovation community. We hope our collaborationand connections to experts that offer inspiration and advice.
helps to accelerate the start-up ecosystem in Japan."With this unique model, BioLabs empowers entrepreneurs toaccelerate their science and have a lasting impact on theAs a picture shown above, labworld. In addition, the iCONM incubator, in collaboration
benches are ready-to-use. Also, thebenches are equipped with a refrigwith BioLabs, is designed to nurture high-potential life scierator and small several equipment..
The other advanced equipment/
ence start-ups in the seed to early clinical stages. This new
animal facility in iCONM can befacility leverages the many resources already found at theavailable.
iCONM research facility, including fully equipped laborato-

Metcela Inc. completed a fundraisinground raising $14 million
Metcela Inc. (hereinafter Metcela) announced the closing of its$14 million (1.42 billion JPY) Series C round led byCYBERDYNE Corporation and CEJ Fund. Metcela isdeveloping a combination product of novel cell-based therapy
and delivery system, MTC001, for heart failure and MTC001 is
currently in Phase 1 clinical trial in Japan.
Metcela acquired all shares of Japan Regenerative Medicine
Co., Ltd. (hereinafter JRM) back in April 2022 and merged inJune 2022. JRM is also developing an autologous cell-based product, JRM-001, targeting pediatric congenital heart disease
and the product is in Phase 3 clinical trial in Japan. The addition of JRM assets and team further strengthens its clinicaldevelopment capability of Metcela by leveraging the commonalities of the two companies. Metcela is further accelerating
and scaling the development of its lead assets and establishing a global ecosystem for the development of autologous
regenerative medicine products.
Click here for Metcela Inc.news release.

Dr. Danno of Knowledge Palette gave
talk at the event

JSR Attracts Startups
JSR Corporation announced that the contract withstartups at a new research center JSR Bioscienceand informatics R&D center (JSR BiRD) which wasopened last year were signed for the use of facilities.
The tenants are two companies, these are ahealthtech company KINS and AuB Inc. which conducts research on intestinal bacteria. JSR BiRD aims
to further accelerate next-generation research andcommercialize through joint research by utilizing
the characteristics of collaborative research facilities.
Click here for JSR Corporation news release.

Dr. Danno, Co-founder, Representative Director & CEO outlined
the core project of the company at “Startups that go out into theworld connected by Tama River Skybridge (Organizer: The Bankof Yokohama, Kiraboshi Bank / Co-organizer: Higashi-NipponBank).”The company aims to overcome intractable diseases by applying
the world’s most accurate whole gene expression analysis technology. In March, the company was selected for “EY Innovative
Startup 2022” (organized by EY Ernst & Young ShinNihon
LLC), an award given to startups expected to achieve significant
growth in the future, and future development is expected.
Click here for website of Knowledge Palette.

The 42nd Tonomachi Cafe was held at Haneda Area
On June 8, the 42nd Tonomachi Café was held at KicSpace Haneda. This time, the majorinitiatives at Haneda area and King SkyFront under the theme of “Healthcare x Digital xMonozukuri” were introduced as a collaborative project with Kiraboshi Bank, Ltd. Mr.
SANADA Tomonori, Associate Officer, Deputy Group Manager, Product Planning Group,
Robot Division of Kawasaki Heavy Industries, Ltd. gave a talk on their initiatives at“Future Lab HANEDA” which was opened in HI City this spring and the future of industrial robots. From King SkyFront, Dr. ICHIKI Takanori, Principal Research Scientist／Laboratory Head, Innovation Center of NanoMedicine, gave a presentation on R&Dfor "home healthcare" and "in-situ testing," for which demand is expected to increase in
the future under the title of "Nano-Engineering to Change the Future of Medicine andDrug Discovery.” After these talks, the participants saw robots’ cooking and pouringdrinks. The talks stimulated many questions and interactions even after the scheduled closing time.

Opening of LINK-J Communication Lounge
LINK-J Communication Lounge has
opened at Research Gate Building II in
King SkyFront. The institutions who are in
King SkyFront and the members of LINK-J
can use this space for meetings with visitorsand social gatherings with colleagues andlocal institutions. There is a free coffee service, we hope it will be used as a new interacting space in King SkyFront.

画像

Date of issue: July 2022
Publisher:
TONOMACHI LifeScience Cluster Division,
Kawasaki Institute of Industrial Promotion
Mail：info-ksfcl@kawasaki-net.ne.jp

The 41st Tonomachi Cafe
was also heldin June, 2022.