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Founder Profile
Takahiro Ochiya/ Ph.D
Co-Founder, CSO
Dr. Takahiro Ochiya is an authoritative researcher of EVs and microRNA. He was the first to develop a method for producing liver stem/progenitor cells from mature liver cells. Dr. Ochiya is a professor at Tokyo Medical University and the former Chief of Molecular Cell Research at the Japan National Cancer Center. He has been credited by Web of Science, an authority on scientific databases, as one of the top 0.1% of highly cited researchers in the world, having authored more than 674 peer-reviewed publications and holding patents in Japan, the US, and Europe.
Dr. Ochiya has served as President of the Japanese Society for Extracellular Vesicles (JSEV) as well as leadership roles at the International Society of Extracellular Vesicles (ISEV). Dr. Ochiya received the 49th Princess Takamatsu Cancer Research Prize, an award established by the Imperial Family of Japan, for his work on the early detection of cancer by circulating micro RNAs. He was also awarded the ISEV Special Achievement Award in 2019.
Team
Founder/Management
Takahiro Ochiya / Ph.D
Co-Founder CSO
Dr. Takahiro Ochiya is an authoritative researcher of EVs and microRNA. He was the first to develop a method for producing liver stem/progenitor cells from mature liver cells. Dr. Ochiya is a professor at Tokyo Medical University and the former Chief of Molecular Cell Research at the Japan National Cancer Center. He received his Ph.D. from Osaka University and conducted post-doctoral studies at the La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation (Sanford Burnham Prebys, San Diego, California).
Kosuke Takishima
CEO
Kosuke has over 15 years of experience in business development across established private companies and start-ups. He has led cross-border teams in the UK, Japan, and the wider APAC region, driving turnarounds and M&A transactions that delivered growth and value creation across multiple ventures. He holds an MBA from Hult International Business School and a BBA in Hospitality Management from Les Roches.
Kiminori Kimura / MD., Ph.D
Advisor
Head of Department
Department of Hepatology,
Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome Hospital
Dr. Kimura is an expert in hepatology, with a particular focus on the development of drugs to treat liver cirrhosis. He has conducted multiple investigator-initiated clinical trials for cirrhosis and has contributed to research by the American Association for the Study of Liver Diseases (AASLD). He graduated from Gifu University School of Medicine and completed his doctoral course at Gifu University Graduate School of Medicine. Dr. Kimura was also a postdoctoral researcher at the Scripps Research Institute (Prof. Chisari FV).
Juntaro Matsuzaki / M.D., Ph.D
Advisor
Professor
Division of Pharmacotherapeutics,
Keio University Faculty of Pharmacy
Dr. Matsuzaki was a Specially Appointed Researcher at the Department of Molecular and Cellular Therapy at the National Cancer Center (Dr. Ochiya’s Group), where he contributed to the identification of serum microRNA biomarkers for early-stage cancer detection. He also served as a postdoctoral researcher at the UCSF Diabetes Center. Dr. Matsuzaki graduated from Keio University School of Medicine, and completed his doctoral course at Keio University Graduate School of Medicine.
Nao Nishida / Ph.D
Advisor
Assistant Professor
Waseda Institute for Advanced Study, Waseda University
Dr. Nishida-Aoki is a cancer biologist who studies tumor microenvironments. She was trained as a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Cancer Center Research Institute and a JSPS Research Fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center. During her postdoctoral studies, she proved the therapeutic efficacy of EV-targeting therapy in a preclinical breast cancer model. Dr. Nishida-Aoki graduated from Kyoto University Graduate School of Agriculture.