July 7, 2021 – Kyoto, Japan – HACARUS, the provider of big insights from small data, and Kyoto University, a world’s renowned institute for research and education, today announced the start of the joint research to elucidate the mechanism of Cell Competition that occurs in the early stages of carcinogenesis.

“We have discovered that the cell competition phenomenon can occur between normal cells and mutant cells. However, much remains a mystery as to how these cells identify react to each other. Through this joint research with HACARUS, we will explore the ways AI can clarify what humans could not perceive – by analyzing moving images of cells from multiple angles. I look forward to exploring a new research style.” said Professor Yasuyuki FUJITA (MD & PhD), Graduate School of Medicine and Faculty of Medicine at Kyoto University.

Cell competition is a phenomenon in which normal cells push out abnormal cells when different types of cells come into contact with each other. While immune cells are usually the ones that eliminate abnormal cells, Professor Yasuyuki FUJITA at Kyoto University has found that the same phenomenon can occur with normal cells.

HACARUS will join forces with Prof. Fujita to uncover the mechanism of this cell competition phenomenon using its unique AI technology and image analysis expertise. The findings could then possibly be used to establish a new modality (treatment method) that is completely different from conventional cancer treatments – such as potentially inducing cell competition by normal cells to eliminate cancer cells.

“HACARUS’ Sparse Modeling based AI can be constructed with a small amount of training data, and it also makes it possible to identify influential factors of the AI’s decision making process – this is why our AI demonstrates high performance in the medical and drug discovery fields. We strongly hope that we can contribute to the development of new treatment methods for cancer through joint research with Professor Fujita, who is a leading researcher in cell competition.” said Kenshin Fujiwara, CEO at HACARUS.

Moving forward, HACARUS will continue to improve the efficiency of R&D and contribute to medical diagnosis and care with its Lightweight and Explainable AI.

Inquiry about this press release can be submitted at pr@hacarus.com .