About Us

Immune system is consisting of a variety of components including organs, cells, and proteins to protect our body from invaders such as pathogens and tumor cells. Among these immune soldiers, myeloid cells, especially macrophages and dendritic cells, have been attracted great interest in oncology and other disease areas, because they play crucial roles in pathological conditions and infections. However, existing immunotherapies and vaccines are not designed to fully employ the potential of these myeloid cells, limiting their clinical usefulness. 

We will change this situation by developing myeloid cell-targeted innovative immunotherapies and vaccines. To realize this, we exploit the power of our unique pullulan polysaccharide-based nanoparticles including lipid nanoparticle (LNP). It is a novel drug delivery system (DDS) technology, so called “Myeloid Targeting Platform™”, that efficiently delivers therapeutic agents to disease- and vaccination-associated macrophages and dendritic cells. It is achieved by a unique targeting mechanism depending on specific binding of pullulan polysaccharide used in nanoparticles to a sugar-sensing immune receptor DC-SIGN that is specifically expressed in these myeloid cells. Another unique feature of our Myeloid Targeting Platform™ is that it can be applied to delivery of a wide variety of payloads including mRNA, siRNA, DNA, small molecules, peptides, and proteins. 

We believe our Myeloid Targeting Platform™ will change the future of patients suffering from hard-to-treat tumors, other immune-related diseases, and infections.