Strategic Promotion of Innovative Research and Development (S-Innovation)
http://www.jst.go.jp/tt/EN/platform/s-innova.html
The research outcome, in which Professor Hideki Taniguchi and his research team at Yokohama City University have successfully created functional human organs such as a ‘mini-liver’ for the first time in the world under the scheme of the Strategic Promotion of Innovative Research and Development program (S-Innovation), has been selected for ‘Breakthrough of the Year 2013’ in Science.
Prof. Taniguchi and his research team have succeeded in generating a three-dimensional rudimentary liver (human ‘mini-liver’) in vitro within 48 hours by culturing hepatic endoderm cells, derived from human iPS cells, with endothelial and mesenchymal lineages.
Prof. Taniguchi expressed that the technologies of creating human tissues and organs will be beneficial for saving patients’ lives in regenerative medicine as well as drug discovery. He also indicated that the creation of ‘mini-organs’ would open a new era of generating a functional human organ from cells.
JST, an integrated organization of science and technology in Japan, establishes an infrastructure for the entire process from the creation of knowledge to the return to the society. For more information, visit http://www.jst.go.jp/EN/