TOKYO UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE TAKAHASHI TSUJI'S LABORATORY

Glycosylation is the most widespread post-translational modification found in natural glycoproteins as well as biopharmaceutical proteins. The glycan moiety, a chain of sugar residues, is essential for protein folding, secretion and biological activity and also provides abundant structural diversity called “glycoform”. The current production systems of biopharmaceuticals based on mammalian cell culture do not control glycosylation and thus produce a mixture of different glycoforms.

Prof. Yasuhiro Kajihara at Osaka University and his colleagues have succeeded in developing a long-awaited method for the large-scale preparation of intact human complex-type asparagine-linked glycans (complex N-glycans). They also developed an efficient chemical synthetic method for site-specific glycosylation of peptides using complex N-glycans and pioneered a way to the complete chemical synthesis of glycoproteins carrying one particular glycan structure. By using of those techniques, Otsuka Chemical Co., Ltd. has established a new advanced manufacturing technology for complex N-glycans and has been developing the chemical synthesis technologies for glycopeptides and glycoproteins.

Prof. Kajihara’s group, Otsuka Chemical Co., Ltd. and the Glycobiotechnology team aim at creating the next generation of biopharmaceuticals through our glycotechnologies. Our mission is to contribute to the welfare and healthcare systems of society through our research and development activities.