Akihiro Imura

CEO at COGNANO Inc.

Speaker

Akihiro Imura decided to found COGNANO 10 years ago, in 2013. He graduated from Kyoto University School of Medicine in 1988 and was awarded his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1996 while working as a physician. He aspired to basic medicine and focused on research on cancer and aging as a staff member at the Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine. His work was accepted by ‘Science’ in 2007. After that, he identified potential problems in biology and set his sights on converting biology into digital data. Focusing on camelid-derived antibodies as a methodology, he founded the alpaca antibody company COGNANO in 2014 while continuing to work as a university researcher, and became full-time CEO in 2020 in the wake of the pandemic.

Examples of successful bioinformatics include the AI-assisted design of antibodies that remain effective even if the new coronavirus mutates, and the use of computers to discover unknown cancer markers. Until now, it has not been possible to digitize antibodies, and we have relied on hard work and luck. However, we foresee that in the future, we will enter an age of AI drug discovery for middle molecules and polymers, and COGNANO continues to accumulate antibody big data. ing. The value of this data disclosure was recognized by the IT industry, and a paper co-authored with Google was accepted into NeurIPS2023, the highest level of machine learning.