Tokyo Institute signs joint research pact with Astellas Pharma

Tokyo Institute of Technology said it has signed a joint research agreement with Astellas Pharma for drug discovery research utilizing Tokyo-Tech’s TSUBNAME 2.0 supercomputer to efficiently discover candidates for treating diseases caused by protozoan parasites.

This joint research aims at contributing drug discovery to treat diseases caused by protozoan parasites like the leishmaniasis, change disease and the sleeping sickness in NTDs.

Under this agreement, the research group led by Masakazu Sekijima, associate professor at the Global Scientific Information and Computing Center, Tokyo-Tech and Astellas will cooperate in the drug discovery to treat the diseases caused by protozoan parasites.

The research will be conducted in 2 steps. In the first step, data mining of public information like the patents and published articles will be carried out to obtain useful and effective knowledge about the drug discovery for treating diseases caused by the protozoan parasites. In the second step, in-silico screening will be performed to identify the compounds which are predicted to have anti-protozoan activities.

Tokyo-Tech boasts Japan’s will assume the responsibility for data mining and for in-silico screening calculations of the commercially available compounds.

Astellas will be responsible to prepare the input data for data mining, selecting, and listing compounds to be evaluated based on the in-silico screening calculations, thereby implementing the efficient drug discovery in a short span of time. The aim of their joint research effort is to contribute to improve the global public health issues.

Tokyo Institute of Technology was established as Tokyo-Technical School in 1881. It is the largest national university of science and technology in Japan with a 130 year history. Astellas Pharma is a Japanese pharmaceutical company formed from the merger of Yamanouchi Pharmaceutical Co Ltd and Fujisawa Pharmaceutical Co Ltd.