HORIBA, Ltd. has selected the winners of the 2021 Masao Horiba Awards for promotion of research in analytical and measurement technologies from among scientists and engineers at universities and public research institutes worldwide. Launched in 2003, the 17th Masao Horiba Awards this year received 51 entries from scientists and engineers worldwide for their work emphasizing the Optical/Spectroscopic Measurement Technologies for Life Science theme. The screening committee composed of seven judges including prestigious scientists and engineers in the field selected three winners and one honorable mention after evaluating each entry with focus on the promise, originality, and potential as a unique measurement instrument.
We are honored to invite not only the winners but also academics and government officials to the award ceremony and commemorative seminar held at the HORIBA Techno Service Head Office Building＊1 on Tuesday, October 19, 2021.
*1 The venue for the award ceremony has been changed from the Shiran Kaikan at Kyoto University in Kyoto, Japan announced when soliciting applications for the Masao Horiba Awards.
Award Winners and Their Award-Winning Research
【Masao Horiba Awards】
Dr. Takuya Iida
Professor, (Concurrent) Director of RILACS
Department of Physical Science, Graduate School of Science, Osaka Prefecture University
(Concurrent) Research Institute for Light-induced Acceleration System (RILACS)
“Development of innovative bio-measurement technology by micro-flow light-induced acceleration”
Dr. Sadao Ota
Associate Professor
Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology,The University of Tokyo
“Development of ultrafast machine vision-activated cell sorters and its applications”
Dr. Kazuhide Sato
Designated Assistant Professor (selected-YLC program)
Institute for Advanced Research/ School of Medicine, Tokai National Higher Education and Research System, Nagoya University
“Elucidation of the mechanism of near-infrared light-induced cell death and method establishment for measuring therapeutic effects”
【Masao Horiba Awards -Honorable Mention-】
Dr. Sanghong Kim
Associate Professor
Department of Applied Physics and Chemical Engineering,Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
“Real-time monitoring and control of pharmaceutical production processes using spectroscopic data”
About Masao Horiba Awards
HORIBA, Ltd. established the Masao Horiba Awards in 2003 to commemorate its 50th anniversary. This award aims to support up-and-coming scientists and engineers both in Japan and overseas who are involved in research and development expected to bring about innovative analytical and measurement technologies, while helping further elevate the standing of measurement technologies in the science and technology field. The Masao Horiba Awards spotlight unique research and development of which results and future potential have global appeal by selecting specific themes within the analytical and measurement technologies field each year centered upon the principles and elemental technologies cultivated by the HORIBA Group.
Screening Committee for the 2021 Masao Horiba Awards
(This list omits titles and is in no particular order.)
| Chairperson | Hirofumi Takeuchi Emeritus Professor Laboratory of Advanced Pharmaceutical Process Engineering Gifu Pharmaceutical University |
| Judges | Jürgen Popp Professor, Scientific Director Leibniz Institute of Photonic Technology Jena, Germany |
| Judges | Rinta Ibuki Professor Research Center for Drug Discovery and Pharmaceutical Development Science Ritsumeikan University |
| Judges | Kouhei Tsumoto Professor Department of Bioengineering School of Engineering The University of Tokyo |
| Judges | Masato Maekawa Professor Department of Laboratory Medicine Hamamatsu University School of Medicine |
| Judges | Mikiko Uchigashima Deputy Department Manager Bio/Life Science Project Sales Division HORIBA, Ltd. |
| Judges | Shintaro Noguchi Section Leader BLS Solution Sales Team Bio/Life Science Project Sales Division HORIBA, Ltd. |
| Award Director | Atsushi Horiba Chairman & Group CEO HORIBA, Ltd. |
| Chief of the Organizing Committee for Masao Horiba Awards 2021 | Masayuki Adachi President & COO HORIBA, Ltd. |
About the Award Ceremony
The Masao Horiba Awards ceremony will be held this year using thorough measures to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Date : Tuesday, October 19, 2021
Venue : HORIBA Techno Service Head Office Building
2, Miyanohigashi-cho, Kisshoin, Minami-ku, Kyoto 601-8305 Japan
2021 Masao Horiba Awards Ceremony Program (Tentative)
1st Session: Commemorative Seminar (Starting at 2:00 p.m.）
・Winner presentations : 3 winners and 1 honorable mention
・Special presentation : Takahiro Ochiya(Professor, Institute of Medical Science, Tokyo Medical University)
2nd Session: Award Ceremony (Starting at 3:30 p.m.)
・Introduction of award-winning research
・Presentation of a certificate and prize money
・Greeting from Award Director Atsushi Horiba(Chairman & Group CEO, HORIBA, Ltd.)
Eligible Fields and Background of the 2021 Masao Horiba Awards
Modern society is in desperate need of new pharmaceutical products and medical treatments to address diseases conventional medicine cannot. Personalized medicine and other new approaches to medical care are realizing treatments right for the physical constitution of patients and characteristics of each disease. In fields integrating these new medical approaches and drug discoveries, we are seeing active research and development of macromolecule drugs derived from nucleic acids and antibodies as well as pharmaceuticals using cells and extracellular endoplasmic reticulum in addition to conventional small-molecule drugs. As research in these fields diversifies, the needs for analytical methods also becomes more diverse. There are high hopes for optical and spectroscopic methods as well as conventional separation methods. To distribute newly developed drugs broadly to people, society needs to establish a sophisticated production process responding to the modality of each drug (therapeutic approach). As a way to tackle this problem, interest in measurement technologies using optical and spectroscopic methods is growing.
The analytical and measurement technologies vital in research and development as well as production require a wide range of innovations in sampling and pretreatment techniques to take advantage of the benefits of the optical and spectroscopic methods which are able to closely analyze cells and other living specimens without causing any damage. Data science approaches are also important for not only processing the vast amount of spectral and imaging data but also for storage and use in production process management. These technologies must contribute to research and development efficiency and the productivity improvement of manufacturing processes. An interdisciplinary research and development style is also necessary even in terms of rapidly developing safe, highly effective vaccines and therapeutic drugs to combat the COVID-19 pandemic spreading throughout the world.
Based on the backdrop described above, the 2021 Masao Horiba Awards solicited optical and spectroscopic measurement technologies which have the potential to transform drug discovery and manufacturing processes among others in the life science field. This year we have highlighted research to develop technologies applicable to industry which will in turn help drive the efficiency of development and production processes.
Winners and their award-winning research
【Masao Horiba Awards】
Dr. Takuya Iida
Professor, (Concurrent) Director of RILACS
Department of Physical Science, Graduate School of Science, Osaka Prefecture University
(Concurrent) Research Institute for Light-induced Acceleration System (RILACS)
“Development of innovative bio-measurement technology by micro-flow light-induced acceleration”
On the medical, pharmaceutical and public health area, it is necessary to measure biological samples including proteins, saccharides, pathogenic materials and bacteria. However, traditional measurement methods include complex steps and need sophisticated expertise, expensive devices and long measurement time.
To solve this problem, Professor Iida developed the microflow-mediated light-induced acceleration system (LAC-SYS). It uses the phenomenon that the irradiation of light on the photoresponsive material (like substrates and particles) induces the accumulation of biological material including proteins around the focal point. It has dozens or hundreds of times higher sensitivity than the conventional methods and can quantify the femtograms＊2 of protein in only a few minutes.
This technology is expected to apply on the wide range of fields including medical and food areas. For example, it may accelerate and simplify screening process in the pharmaceutical development and diagnosis of individual patient in the personalized medicine.
*2 femtogram : one quadrillionth of a gram
Dr. Sadao Ota
Associate Professor
Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology,The University of Tokyo
“Development of ultrafast machine vision-activated cell sorters and its applications”
A high-quality cell sorter＊3 that is able to perform real-time image information analysis to separate a large number of cells had been desired. However, there is always a tradeoff between the processible information per cell (quality) and the number of cells per time (quantity). Therefore, there had been no high throughput imaging cell sorter that holds both the advantages of optical microscope (high quality) and flow cytometry＊4 (high quantity).
In order to overcome this, Dr. Ota came out with a new approach named “ghost cytometry”, originating from a concept that image reconstruction is not always necessary in image analysis when performed by machines, not by humans. This method utilizes the motion of each cell in microchannels to acquire its compressed image signal by a single pixel detector, and directly applies AI to the signal, resulting in the development of the world's first, high-speed, and accurate image-free “imaging” cell sorter. This technology is expected to be widely applied in biotechnology and cellular medicine field which will benefit in medical diagnosis by using rare cells and drug screening based on cell analysis.
*3 cell sorter : A device that selectively separates various types of cells based on their respective characteristics.
*4 flow cytometry : A technology that irradiates light on cells flowing in a liquid and analyzes them by light scattering intensity and fluorescence intensity
Dr. Kazuhide Sato
Designated Assistant Professor (selected-YLC program)
Institute for Advanced Research/ School of Medicine, Tokai National Higher Education and Research System, Nagoya University
“Elucidation of the mechanism of near-infrared light-induced cell death and method establishment for measuring therapeutic effects”
The typical current cancer treatment such as radiation therapy and chemotherapy cause damage to normal cells. The damage will result in side effects and make QOL (Quality of Life) of patients getting worse.
Dr. Sato has studied the next generation cancer specific therapy called Near Infrared Photoimmunotherapy (NIR-PIT), which can extremely decrease side effect of cancer therapy by targeting only cancer cells through antibody-probe complex. Cell death of targeted cells will be further triggered by reaction of probe and near infrared light. He also clarified the mechanism of cell death due to NIR-PIT and found out that dead cells can be quantified and estimated with near infrared fluorescence measurement.
Dr. Sato has contributed a prior application designation of NIR-PIT from the Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency in Japan. His work greatly contributes to society by making a breakthrough in both diagnosis and therapy of cancer.
【Masao Horiba Awards -Honorable Mention-】
Dr. Sanghong Kim
Associate Professor
Department of Applied Physics and Chemical Engineering,Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology
“Real-time monitoring and control of pharmaceutical production processes using spectroscopic data”
In recent years, there has been a growing demand for developing new technologies that achieve higher operational efficiency of pharmaceutical manufacturing. As part of this, technological developments to promote shift from the conventional batch manufacturing＊5 to continuous manufacturing are under progress. In order to realize continuous manufacturing, real-time pharmaceutical quality monitoring within the continuous manufacturing processes are critical. However, acquiring information related to pharmaceutical quality in real-time manner is often an issue. In addition, the conventional analytical methods for predicting pharmaceuticals quality from the near-infrared spectra suffer from deterioration of prediction accuracy over time, making it difficult for their installation in the process.
Dr. Kim developed novel data analytical methods for quality prediction from near-infrared spectra with improved accuracy and robustness compared to the conventional methods.
By performing real-time quality control with the developed methods, improved pharmaceutical production process, reduction of cost, environmental load as well as accidental risk can be achieved.
*5 A manufacturing method in which each process is independent, and after the end of each process, sampling inspections are conducted to confirm quality of the products in prior to proceed to the next process.