3/19 Computational Immunology: from Dream to Reality

Computational Immunology: from Dream to Reality

Daron M. Standley

Professor, Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University Visiting Professor, Immunology Frontier Research Institute, Osaka University Co-Founder, KOTAI Biotechnologies, Inc.

KOTAI Biotechnologies grew from two necessities: 1) to attract skilled software engineers and 2) to bridge the gap between academic research and drug discovery. The best programmers often don’t possess advanced degrees and so are unable to receive salaries in academia that are competitive with industry; however, strong programming skills are essential for cutting-edge artificial intelligence (AI) research and development. With regard to the first need, I initially wanted to treat my lab as a place to prototype new AI methods in the hope that KOTAI Biotechnologies would further develop the best prototypes into commercial products. With regard to the second need, it is almost certain that the next generation of immunology-based diagnostics and drugs with require close collaboration between academia and industry, as demonstrated by the recent collaborations at IFReC with Chugai and Ostuka pharma. When we first launched KOTAI Biotechnologies, there were no companies working at the intersection of AI and immunology.

Today, this is no longer the case: Microsoft and Adaptive Biotechnologies have developed an AI-based diagnostic platform and all immune cell sequencing companies have integrated software platforms to help researchers analyze their data. Thus, the coming years will be crucial to the success of KOTAI Biotechnologies.

https://www.uic.osaka-u.ac.jp/event/4274/

Osaka University Innovators’ Club

Research Institute for Microbial Diseases, Osaka University Osaka University Venture Capital, Co., Ltd