Research and development and human development of the vector manufacturing for gene therapy

In recent years, clinical R&D on gene therapy has rapidly advanced and become increasingly competitive, leading to groundbreaking achievements in safety and efficacy and attracting substantial attention as an innovative, next-generation medical technology. On the other hand, although Osaka University and other Japanese institutions have achieved world-class results in pure research on gene therapy, there has been less progress on non-clinical and early-stage clinical trials of drug discovery “seeds,” due to delays in establishing manufacturing infrastructure. For this reason, the group is actively working with medical and pharmaceutical experts on the development of technologies for manufacturing the vectors needed for gene therapy, based on the Osaka University Graduate School of Engineering’s wealth of experience in biotechnological manufacturing (a field in which the university excels). The group is simultaneously working to foster human resources in this field. Through these efforts, we hope to make a significant contribution to the realization of early clinical development.