Host: The Japanese Society of Toxicology
The human microbiota, whose relationship with health and diseases is becoming clearer one after another, is currently receiving a great attention not only from science but also from industry and can be expected as sources of new innovations. On the other hand, considering that it has become clear that the Japanese microbiota has different characteristics from those of Westerners, it is necessary to acquire and analyze Japanese data together with various health and medical information for industrial applications. From the viewpoint of industrialization to realize them, it is a major premise that there is a reliable foundation such as data reproducibility. For that purpose, standardization of protocols with an eye to industrialization is extremely important. And development of standard substances as validation tools and establishment of validation flow are required.
In April 2017, The Japan Microbiome Consortium (JMBC) was established with the aim of standardizing protocols important for industrialization, acquiring Japanese data, and building a database of healthy people that can be expected to be used in many industries as a reference.
This lecture introduces background and purpose of the establishment and goals of the consortium, as well as the activities and R & D plans through collaborative cooperation between companies.
Furthermore, recent trends toward drug discovery are also presented from the perspective of application to pharmaceuticals. In recent years, the therapeutic effects of fecal transplantation have been reported successively and application to drug discovery has become active especially in Europe and the United States. Several venture companies engaged in microbiota have already been established in Europe and the United States, and some venture companies have announced alliances with major pharmaceutical companies. In addition, many clinical trials are conducting one after another and the pipeline is increasing.
After mentioning these trends of pharmaceutical companies, we would like to discuss what kind of innovative products can be expected from human microbiome research.
