Meet our InnoUvators

Bone regeneration therapy while avoiding iPS cell tumorigenesis
2019 INNO-vation Disruptive Challenger

As Japan's population continues to age, the demand for regenerative medicine to restore lost or damaged bones continues to climb. Effective bone regeneration technology is also expected to be sought after for medical care on pets, such as cats and dogs, and racehorses with broken bones. I have been involved with development of regenerative medical technology used to treat the jaw bone reduction that occurs after losing teeth.

I have established a technology to obtain artificial bone materials by freeze-drying artificial bones (bone organoids) made from iPS cells. This product not only exhibits higher bone regeneration and absorbency not found in existing bone materials, but due to the fact that it uses dead iPS cells, it's also expected to have realistic clinical applications due to its safety and low cost.

Within this project, for the purpose of developing the technology for clinical uses and animal medical care, I will be working to strengthen the effectiveness of this product and verify and inspect its results.

Interview

Regenerating Teeth and Bones With iPS Cells (Part 1)

Hiroshi Egusa

Director, Liaison Center for Innovative Dentistry, Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry

After graduating from the Faculty of Dentistry, Hiroshima University in 1998, Hiroshi Egusa became an research assistant at the University of Hong Kong in 1999. He then went on to receive his doctorate in dentistry from Hiroshima University in 2002 and worked at the UCLA Weintraub Center in the United States as a research fellow for the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. At the Graudate School of Dentistry Osaka University, Egusa worked as a research assistant in 2004 and an Assistant Professor in 2007.

From 2014, he has also been a Professor at Tohoku University Graduate School of Dentistry. In 2018, he became the director of the Liaison Center for Innovative Dentistry and the Assistant Director of Tohoku University Hospital. From 2020 he has served as the Director of Yohoku University's Graduate School of Dentistry's Center for Advanced Stem Cell and Regenerative Research.

He is also a medical specialist and perceptor at the Japan Prosthodontic Society. He is recognized as a certified physician and an infection control doctor by the Japanese Society for Regenerative Medicine. He has also received a number of awards, such as 1st prize of the International Association for Dental Research (IADR) Edward Hatton Award, the IADR Arthur Fletche Best Young Researcher Award, and the IADR Best Young Scientist Award.