Researchers in the Graduate School of Medicine of Kyoto University carry out research night and day so that they can bring hope and relief to those suffering from disease in the research fields of both basic medicine and clinical sciences. The accumulation of such efforts has generated numerous excellent research achievements. For example, Tasuku Honjo, Distinguished Professor of Kyoto University and Professor Emeritus of the Graduate School of Medicine, discovered PD-1 when engaged in basic research at this graduate school. His research on this protein led to the development of a new cancer immunotherapy, earning him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2018. As indicated by this, the Graduate School of Medicine is highly rated internationally as a superb medical research facility.
Share research results extensively with society, connect them with diagnoses and therapies for many diseases, and contribute to human health and wellbeing – this is one of the graduate school’s very important missions. In light of this, in 2002, the graduate school established the Liaison Office with the assistance of the Shirankai Alumni Association for the purpose of matching research “seeds” generated at the Graduate School and other Kyoto University organizations in the field of medicine and market needs, and facilitating the drug discovery and development of diagnosis and therapy technologies. In addition, on the university’s reorganization into a national university cooperation in 2004, the Liaison Office was developed into KUMBL (Kyoto University Medical Science and Business Liaison Organization) in cooperation with the Office of Society-Academia Collaboration for Innovation (SACI).
KUMBL comprises the Liaison Office, the Office of Promotion for Medical Innovation, and the Incubation Plaza. The Liaison Office handles an extensive range of conventional industry-academia collaboration, such as joint research between companies and researchers, MTA contracts, and technology transfer. In addition, not only joint research by the university and companies, but also cooperation in education, human resource development, and many other fields is promoted based on equal partnership as Kyoto University’s new style of industry-academia collaboration research project, with the Graduate School’s Medical Innovation Center (MIC) serving as the base. The Office of Promotion for Medical Innovation works to facilitate institution-level joint research and development that is beyond the framework of the individual joint research mentioned above. These joint research projects are totally new, innovative, and quite different from those in the past in that each of them is designed to promote the research for discovery and development of medicines for a specific disease literally.
In addition, the Incubation Plaza manages Innovation Hub Kyoto (IHK), the institution which assists in putting research results to practical use and in establishment of university-based venture businesses in order to accommodate them to the needs of the times. IHK, where researchers can use experiment space, research facilities, and other top-level research infrastructure possessed by Kyoto University, provides a full range of both tangible and intangible support programs for establishing a venture business. Furthermore, IHK operates the Healthcare Innovation Design Entrepreneurship Program (HiDEP), an educational program for fostering entrepreneurs in this field.
Japan has an import surplus in the medical and healthcare fields, and actually lags behind other countries in terms of development of the latest therapeutic medicines. The long-term stagnation and declining position of Japanese society in international competition has been caused by the decrease in population and lack of new innovation. At the Graduate School of Medicine of Kyoto University, we strive to create innovation in the medical and healthcare fields. The KUMBL is striving to promote industry-academia collaboration by making use of Kyoto University’s excellent research “seeds” and infrastructure and share with society as many research accomplishments from Kyoto and Japan as possible. I would like to ask for the cooperation and support of companies, researchers aiming to start venture businesses, and all other related parties.
