ARCALIS, Inc.
Hitachi, Ltd.
News release overview
ARCALIS and Hitachi Enter Joint Research Agreement on mRNA Sequence Design Technology
ARCALIS, Inc. (Headquarters: Kashiwa-shi, Chiba; President and CEO: Tomoyuki Fujisawa; hereinafter 'ARCALIS') and Hitachi, Ltd. (Headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Keiji Kojima; hereinafter 'Hitachi') are pleased to announce the signing of a joint research agreement with the aim of establishing messenger RNA (mRNA) sequence design technology for drug discovery of mRNA therapeutics.
mRNA therapeutics demonstrate their medical effects when the protein corresponding to the mRNA sequence is expressed in the body. In addition to vaccines against infectious diseases, mRNA therapeutics are expected to be applied to cancer therapy and regenerative medicine. The efficiency of protein expression depends on the sequence of mRNA. Therefore, the design of mRNA sequence is a very important issue in the drug discovery phase.
In this joint research, we will work to solve this problem with ARCALIS's extensive knowledge and expertise in mRNA production and Hitachi's AI-related technology. By making full use of comprehensive cellular experiments for high quality expression data and machine learning that utilize acquired data, we aim to establish mRNA sequence design technology that improves the efficiency of protein expression.
ARCALIS has been collaborating with its group company, Axcelead Drug Discovery Partners Inc. (Headquarters: Fujisawa-shi, Kanagawa; President and CEO: Nobuhiko Yamada), and has started an integrated mRNA drug discovery support service since July 2022. The results of this joint research are planned to be reflected in the unique mRNA design system used in this drug discovery support service.
