Eiichi Yamaguchi, Ph.D., Board of Director, President and COO, Repertoire Genesis Inc.

Curing the Incurable" Approaching drug discovery from immunodiversity analysis

Eiichi Yamaguchi, Ph.D., Board of Director, President and COO, Repertoire Genesis Inc.

[Summary]
・Our business and contribution to society
Repertoire Genesis Inc. provides our proprietary technologies for immune diversity analysis (repertoire analysis and neoepitope analysis) through contract analysis, business alliance, and comprehensive agreement to pharmaceutical companies, research laboratories, and academia.
With the advent of immune checkpoint inhibitors such as anti-PD-1 antibody, there is a growing need for immune diversity analysis, but it requires know-how to perform it properly. Researchers with Ph.D. and bioinformaticians with expertise in immunology are on hand to support you from the study design stage and provide you with an appropriate approach to the analysis of immune diversity. We have an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited and GLP-compliant laboratory. We can take care of your specimens, perform the experimental manipulations necessary to analyze your samples and process the huge amount of base sequence information for data analysis. Appropriate evaluation of the results can lead to the development of biomarkers to predict drug efficacy and the development of disease-specific cellular drugs. This will smooth the approach from the analysis of immune diversity to drug discovery and accelerate the company's vision of "Curing the Incurable".

・Our technology
Repertoire analysis is a method for assessing the frequency of T-cell receptor (TCR) and B-cell receptor (BCR) genes to identify disease-specific immune cells, and we have developed an adaptor-ligation PCR method optimized to a long-read next generation sequencer (NGS), and the dedicated bioinformatics software, and obtained intellectual property (P2017-212988A: T-cell receptor and B-cell receptor repertoire analysis system and use of same in therapy and diagnosis).
Neo-epitope analysis is a method for detecting disease-specific neo-epitopes by predicting and calculating the intermolecular binding force (IC50) of mutant peptides (neo-epitopes) based on genetic mutations accumulated in cancer cells and other cells for antigen presentation by their own HLA. We have developed and filed the intellectual property applications for dedicated, fully automated bioinformatics software for comprehensive analysis with data using RNA-seq and Exome-seq (WO2017/159686: Monitoring and diagnosis for immunotherapy, and design for therapeutic agent).
These immune diversity analyses will enable us to search for biomarkers to trigger a cure. Furthermore, the information obtained can be applied to cell processing techniques to produce safe immune cells for therapeutic use.

・Marketability
The global market for gene therapeutics is expected to exceed over ¥1 trillion by 2025, and to exceed over ¥5 trillion by 2030. With the advent of anti-PD-1 antibody, an immune checkpoint inhibitor, and CAR-T cell therapy, the market for therapeutic immuno-cell therapy is expected to expand in size, with T-cell drugs accounting for approximately 20% of this market.

・Proposer/ team biographies/ awards received
Selected for multiple domestic and international bio-venture events, published in Forbes Japan, featured in a report by the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST), selected for the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) booth at the Japan Healthcare Venture Summit for two consecutive years, and the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED) project to create an innovative platform for medical research and development, "CiCLE" research projects adopted. Major collaborations and joint research with Zenyaku Kogyo Co.

[Profile]
Senior Director, Business Development, Shionogi & Co., Ltd., Managing Director, Shionogi Singapore Pte. Ltd., Vice President, Shionogi Qualicaps, Inc., Director, International Committee, The Japan Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Association, Ph.D.