Projects
Original approach
The rising costs of medical care in a progressively aging society, the progression of the heat-island phenomenon with global warming, and the proceeding deficiency of foods and fuel, need to be sorted out in order to achieve sustainable development in our society. Plants may be useful for solving these problems in combination with patented technologies mentioned below.
1. Commercialization of intellectual property: Utilization of 12 patent applications
Production of valuable molecules such as biologics and cosmetic components by application of the "light-switch" method to plants as published in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 2010
Creation of drought-tolerant grasses by genetic modification to green building roofs and road slope faces, using the application of the genes responsible for salt tolerant callus (stc) and photoautotrophic salt tolerance (pst) (published in two papers in PLOS ONE, 2015 and in one paper in Plant Cell, 1999, respectively)
Creation of productivity-enhanced plants by genome editing* of genes for suppressed greening (sug), contributing to efficient production of nutraceuticals and biofuel in plants
*genome editing: Targeted alterations to DNA caused by gene editing are equivalent to that occurring in nature such as complete knockout (KO) of a gene, and foods made by KO can now be sold in Japan after reporting to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW).
New varieties of tea plants created by gene knockout (KO) by genome editing, the safety technology
Biofortification of pharmaceutics and nutraceuticals in plants by light-emitted diode (LED) irradiation
Development of highly sensitive diagnostic reagents to detect the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 infection
2. Education for the public
Lectures and on-demand delivery of the subject "Japanology" as an interesting and unique way to introduce the geography, society, culture, science, and industry of Japan to foreign audiences
3. Consulting
Biofortification using plants