To Open the secrets of the human immune system

In June 2018, JUNTEN BIO Co., Ltd. was established as Juntendo University’s venture company with the aim of making practical use of Juntendo University’s research seeds. In recent years, revolutionary technologies such as gene therapy and regenerative medicine have led to development of numerous novel regenerative medicine products. However, these medicines tend to be expensive, and the burden on patients due to medical bills being higher than they were is becoming a societal problem. In this situation, if we can develop effective regenerative medicine products for refractory diseases which are currently difficult to cure, the patients’ quality of life will be improved and the overall costs of treatment may be reduced, so we consider this to be a worthwhile challenge for development. At JUNTEN BIO, among various revolutionary technologies, we are using inducible inhibitory T-cells (JB-101), studied collaboratively with Juntendo University, to tackle the treatment of organ transplants showing hyperimmune rejection, by inducing immune tolerance. With a single immune tolerance induction treatment, it is possible to reduce the dose of or discontinue administration of immunosuppressants, enabling the immunosuppressant dose after organ transplantation to be reduced, minimizing the risk of disease induced by immunosuppressants, and thus further reducing medical costs, potentially resulting in marked improvement of the patients’ quality of life. The findings obtained from immune tolerance induction therapy have the potential as a new door to step into human immune function, aiming to expand from organ transplantation to research on intractable diseases due to hyperimmune reactions..

February 2021