Kosuke Kuroda, Associate Professor from Faculty of Biological Science and Technology, Institute of Science and Engineering, Kanazawa University won the “Changing Tomorrow” pitch contest, organized by LINK-J and sponsored by Astellas Pharma Inc. on February 28, 2025. He also received a research budget of 10 million yen and other supports, including free lab space (*1).
This pitch contest is designed to promote the drug discovery ecosystem in the Kashiwanoha-Tsukuba area by supporting leading researchers and companies who are tackling drug discovery challenges with cutting-edge science and a passion for patient welfare. This year, the competition was open to groups proposing new ideas and technologies to address unmet medical needs and 9 teams that had passed the document review were invited to the pitch. Dr. Kuroda, an associate professor in Kanazawa university, presented “Designing solvents that solubilize insoluble substances and its social implementation”, which was praised for its originality and innovation, and became the winner.
Dr. Kuroda comments, “The ionic liquids we have developed have low toxicity and have potential clinical applications. For example, our ionic liquids may allow continuation of studies for a large number of past drug candidates that have been withdrawn from development because they cannot be dissolved in existing solvents. I am happy that the judges acknowledged the originality of our focus on solvents rather than drug ingredients. This award strongly encourages us to further study the practical applications of ionic liquids and to launch a start-up. We will keep running by the day lives will be saved by a drug dissolved in ionic liquids!”
*1： Details of the pitch contest
https://www.link-j.org/news/article-45944.html
Associate Professor Kosuke Kuroda (right), the winner
Click here to see the press release【Japanese only】
Researcher’s Information： Kosuke Kuroda
Research Introduction Video -Aspiration-: #3 Kosuke Kuroda
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