Biotech Grand Prix 2023 From the Greetings from the President of the Jury
Hiroyuki Takahashi, Executive Officer, LIVERNESS Co.
How to create the biotechnologies of the future
Hello everyone. The Biotech Grand Prix is about to begin. Once again, we have gathered all the finalists who have very sharp ideas and plans. I have thought a lot about what we can do here today, so let me be the first to tell you.
What is biotechnology anyway? I believe that the origin of biotechnology can be traced back to the birth of oxygen-producing organisms on the earth 3.5 billion years ago. In other words, the birth of the chemical process of oxygen production by living organisms.
From there, evolution continued with the creation of microorganisms that used sunlight to create organic compounds from water and carbon dioxide and oxygen to produce energy, and as a result, we have evolved to the point where we are like a human being, a mass of trillions of cells.
I believe that the biotech industry is an industry in which we, human beings, make use of the power that living organisms have cultivated and accumulated in the process of evolution. In this light, the biotech industry to date has been limited to the successful extraction and utilization of only a small portion of the power of living organisms, such as the process of converting substance A into substance B.
In this biotechnological way, the more we use the resources available on the earth, the more we will be faced with a situation of resource depletion and depletion. For this reason, a movement is now beginning to emerge to change the nature of biotechnology. I would like to discuss with you today how to create the biotechnology of the future for the new era.
I have my own ideas about how biotechnology will change. one is the technology to "know organisms," to explore what organisms have to offer. The other is technology that "draws out the power of living organisms. Until now, the main focus has been on controlling the power of living organisms or cutting out parts of them, but from now on, I think it will be very important to coexist with living organisms and to make the manufacturing process more efficient by drawing out the power of living organisms.
I have a feeling that all of today's 12 finalists also have strong feelings about these two things, "knowing living things" and "drawing out the power of living things.
Creating new things through cross-fertilization
However, it is not possible to deliver a technology to society simply because it is outstanding on an individual basis. By combining the new technologies brought by the finalists with the abundant know-how and assets of the judges, we can create new things and new industries. This is what we hope to achieve from this event.
Today is the 10th edition of the Biotech Grand Prix, formerly known as the Bioscience Grand Prix, and today we are joined as a judge by the first presenter and Grand Prize winner of the first Bioscience Grand Prix, which was first held in 2014, Mr. Shinji Fukuda of Metagen, Inc. He was the first presenter of the first Bioscience Grand Prix held in 2014 and the winner of the Grand Prize.
Metagen is a company created by a team of three researchers, Mr. Fukuda, Mr. Yamada, and Mr. Mizuguchi. At the time of our entry in the Grand Prix, the company was not yet organized as a corporation, but we started to think that something interesting could be done with intestinal bacteria, so we established a company and have since brought various business companies on board. In 2014, gut microbiota was a topic of conversation only in academia. But with the birth of companies like Metagen, it is now a term that has permeated the general public. I hope that today's finalists will also build such a world.
Metagen is approaching healthcare issues, but there are issues in many other fields in the world, such as food, environment, and energy. Let me start here with you to see if we can solve these issues by harnessing the power of living organisms.
Moving up a gear in problem-solving through "knowledge manufacturing
LIVERNESS continues its efforts to solve unsolved problems through the collective efforts of science and technology. I believe that an "aggregate" is not simply a collection of people, but rather a team of people with ideas, which is created when various business companies get involved in their ideas. By sharing your thoughts here, Deep Tech (an aggregate of science and technology) will be born, and solutions to issues will be realized.
The Tech Planter, which started in 2014, has so far gathered about 3,500 teams, or 3,500 issues and technologies, in total, including Southeast Asia. We believe that there is a possibility that we can work together to tackle the challenges we have gathered so far by forming teams with everyone here.
RIVANES has been working to become a "knowledge platform" since the company was established in 2002, and we have been working to create a platform by communicating with students, graduate students, teachers, junior high and high school students, and other next-generation leaders, business companies, and manufacturing companies, including those who are competing in Tech Planter, to create a group of people who can take on unsolved problems. We have created a platform for people who are tackling unsolved issues. In this way, we have proposed that "this issue could be solved by that person and that company working together," and have actually launched projects.
To further accelerate this activity by moving up one gear, from 2023, LIVERNESS advocates "knowledge manufacturing". Knowledge manufacturing refers to the creation of new knowledge by multiplying knowledge with knowledge, thereby solving problems.
Today, the members of RIVERNESS are going to involve you, and conversely, we hope that you will involve RIVERNESS as well. As many people get involved and get involved, new technologies that solve problems will be born. The Tech Planter is the place to implement this. Let's have discussions here!
A new era of knowledge manufacturing is coming. It is about to happen right here, right now. Please join us today.
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