Takara Shuzo signs a collaboration agreement on a genome analysis of chimpanzees with Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho

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http://www.takara.co.jp/english/index.htm

 

22 November, 2000

 

Press Release

Takara Shuzo signs a collaboration agreement on a genome analysis of

chimpanzees with Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho

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On November 13, Takara Shuzo Biomedical Group agreed on the collaboration in

genome analysis of chimpanzees with Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho Co., Ltd.

 

Research on chimpanzees is helpful for medical and life sciences, because

the ape is the closest living relative of humankind, " Next to Kin " . Although

the chimpanzee is an endangered species, Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho holds and

maintains a colony of about 100 chimpanzees in their Primates Research Park

with the ethical code of breeding. On the other hand, the Biomedical Group

has founded Dragon Genomics Co., Ltd. (abbreviated as DGC) as a subsidiary

of Takara Shuzo on July 4, 2000, which is designed to become the largest

center for genome analysis in Asia. New facilities of DGC is under

construction in Suzuka-Sanroku Research Park located in Yokkaichi, Mie and

will be completed in January 2001. Capacity of DGC for genome analysis will

reach 60% or more of Celera Genomics, the biggest DNA sequencing company in

the world by summer of 2002.

 

Chimpanzees and humans are " sibling species " , and chimpanzees share 98.4% of

human DNA and some traits of humans as well. Therefore, divergence between

the two genome is a very important issue for biological and behavioral

sciences. From this viewpoint, the Biomedical Group will analyze the genome

of chimpanzees in collaboration with Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho to contribute to

human health. They expect that the collaboration research will achieve good

results, like etiological solution upon difference of susceptibility to some

diseases, evolutionary differences between the great ape family and other

animals such as mice frequently used for biomedical researches, and finally

insights into human nature including mind, brain and behavior.

 

DGC plans its own genome analysis projects, though the pivotal mission is to

receive orders for genome analysis from research organizations and companies

in the world. Potential examples of the own projects are analysis of genomes

of Asians, man-like apes (about 3 billion bases), silkworms (about a half

billion bases), and marine organisms. As part of these projects, Takara came

to the collaboration agreement for the chimpanzee genome project with Sanwa

Kagaku Kenkyusho. Under the terms of the agreement, Sanwa will provide

Takara with blood samples of chimpanzees. Takara and DGC will perform high

throughput DNA sequencing and functional analysis of genes identified,

respectively.

 

 

Outline of Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho Co., Ltd

President & CEO: Keiji Tanimoto

Head office: 35 Higashisotobori-cho, Higashi-ku, Nagoya 461-8631 Japan

Paid-in capital: 101 million yen

Annual sales: 31,396 million yen

Founding December 1953

Employees: 1123 persons

Undertakings: R & D, production and marketing of pharmaceuticals,

diagnostics, foods and healthcare products

 

Outline of Dragon Genomics Co., Ltd.

President: Ikunoshin Kato, Ph. D. (Vice president of Takara Shuzo Co., Ltd.)

Location: 7870-15 Sakura-cho, Yokkaichi-shi, Mie, Japan

Paid-in capital: 5 billion yens

Investor: Takara Shuzo Co., Ltd. (100%)

Founding July 4, 2000

Employees: 30 persons in the fiscal year 2001, and 70 in 2003

Undertakings: Offering of services for genome analysis including high

throughput DNA sequencing

 

This article is translated from the press release in Japanese for your

convenience.