Deep Tech Bridge 2025: Connecting Kansai and Boston
📣 First come first served! Registration closes Thursday, November 20th 11:59 PM EST.
Please check in with the security through the entrance located on 255 Main St. (left rear of the building) with a valid form of ID and take the elevator to the 3rd floor.
Event description:
We invite you to join KSAC (Kansai Startup Academia Coalition) and Venture Café for a special international exchange designed to connect Japanese life-science researchers with the Boston innovation and biotech ecosystem.
This event aims to create meaningful dialogue and collaboration opportunities between researchers from Japan and professionals across Boston’s thriving life-science community. Through concise research pitches, a startup demonstration, and an overview of the local ecosystem, participants will gain valuable insights into how discoveries can transition from the lab to the global market.
The program will feature:
Researcher Pitch Session — Five researchers from Japan will share brief presentations (3 minutes each + Q&A), introducing their ongoing work in the life sciences. (find details on their research and profile below): https://ksac.site/bostonprogram2025/
Tomonari AWAYA - M.D., Ph.D., Associate Professor, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University
First-in-class nucleic acid therapies for DMD designed by novel in silico platform
Keiko KATO - DVM, Ph.D., DJCLAM, Dean of the Graduate Schools, Professor, Faculty of Life Sciences, Kyoto Sangyo University
NOVEL DIAGNOSTIC TEST ~Urinary volatile biomarkers detect frailty~
Ryohei SASAKI - M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Director and Professor, Division of Radiation Oncology, Kobe University
Burst therapy, a novel strategy of radiologically induced cancer vaccine therapy using titanium peroxide nanoparticles
Fumiyuki HATTORI - Ph.D., Innovative Regenerative Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Kansai Medical Universtiy
Cell transplantation with ultimate suppression of tissue invasion
Makiko MAEDA - Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, The University of Osaka
Development of an Application for Drug Administration Management
Startup Pitch — Unlocking the full potential of remote disease management
A demonstration pitch by Shunsuke Matsuoka, CEO of General Prognostics: focused on improving the lives of individuals with chronic disease via personalized and predictive innovations that are easy for patients to live with and help clinicians deliver the best care.
Pitch Commentators
Shweta Agrawal - Product Leader I Strategy and Innovation I Management Consulting
Enrique (Samuel) Shadah - President, Expert Collective Cooperative
Lightning Talk — Global Expectations and Commercialization Potential for Japan’s Bio & Life Science Sector in Boston
A guided lecture by Suman Lal, Advisor, TINS: Technology Innovation Studio: exploring the growing potential for commercialization and the increasing global interest in innovation from Japan's bio and life science sector. Through the lens of Boston's ecosystem, this lecture will offer you new perspectives to learn and connect with pioneering Japanese researchers.
Networking & Luncheon — Dedicated time for open networking and one-on-one conversations during coffee breaks and lunch, encouraging collaboration between researchers, and ecosystem partners/stakeholders.
Whether you are a researcher, entrepreneur, investor, or ecosystem builder, this event offers a rare opportunity to engage with emerging voices in Japan’s life sciences and gain firsthand understanding of how you and the Boston ecosystem can be a part of this scientific and entrepreneurial growth.
Event format
・In-person participation
・Free
Event Venue
・CIC Cambridge, 245 Main St. 3rd floor - MOSAIC Room
・All participants are required to register 48 hours in advance, and check in with the security through the entrance located on 255 Main St. (left rear of the building) with a valid form of ID."
This event is hosted by Venture Café Tokyo and KSAC:
Venture Café Tokyo is Japan's largest innovation community with the mission of "connecting innovators to make things happen". Through curated programs such as the Thursday Gathering, a weekly-gathering event that brings on average 250 participants, Rocket Pitch Night, Japan's largest pitch event with nearly 10,000 participants, and Community Campus, a program for anyone to take the first step of their entrepreneurial journey, Venture Café Tokyo brings together innovators of all kinds, from entrepreneurs, academia, corporates, investors to learn, connect, and share.
KSAC (Kansai Startup Academia Coalition) is a platform to create a world-class startup ecosystem by expanding the base of entrepreneurs in the Kansai region with participation of more than 90 institutions from universities, industry, finance, and local governments in the Kansai region. KSAC will contribute to the development of an ecosystem by working together to develop human resources with entrepreneurial skills and to create startups in the Kansai region. (more details here)