About us
Overview
T Cell Nouveau Inc. is a clinical stage biopharmaceutical company aspiring to cure solid tumors with our novel Hybrid CAR-T cell therapies that enhances the immune system with state of the art technology originated in prof. Hiroshi Shiku laboratory at Mie University.
We strongly believe that our unique Hybrid CAR T-cell therapy is a quantum leap toward curing solid tumors, uncovered by modern CAR / TCR-T cell therapies.
Our proprietary Hybrid CAR antibodies are highly specific against target antigens (MAGE-A4 and PRAME) in peptide-MHC complexes.
Moreover, our proprietary signal domain constructs help to activate, maintain and prolong T cell effect in immunosuppressive tumor microenvironment.
We are proudly delivering this unique technology from prof. Hiroshi Shiku laboratory at Mie University to global medical practice.
Company vision
Release cell inner power with high precision to strike out cancer
CEO Message
Our company started on January 15, 2021 as a spin-out venture from Prof. Shiku Laboratory at Mie University Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy Dept. Although our founder, Dr. Hiroshi Shiku, passed away suddenly on September 4th, 2022, we carry his legacy aiming to deliver his cancer immunotherapy research results to patients.
CAR T cell therapy based on gene editing technology has been developed over many years since in 1989. In 2017, Kymriah was firstly approved in the United States (and in Japan in 2019), and since then, several CAR-T therapies have been approved for clinical use.
However, these are all for blood cancers, and they have not yet been successful for solid cancers.
We aim to further evolve the research achievements of the prof. Shiku Laboratory to bring a new CAR/TCR T cell therapy for solid tumors from Japan to global clinical practice.
Executive Team
President & CEO
Kosuke Matsunaga
Chairman of the Board
Kazuto Takesako
Senior Vice President, COO
Director (external)
Auditor
Masanobu Kimura
Kei Fujioka
CEO, Takt Pharma Inc.
Advisor, DBJ Capital
Takashi Mitsuguchi
DBJ Capital
Company Profile
Company name
T Cell Nouveau Inc.
Company establishment
January 15, 2021
Headquarter
6F C-16 Nihonbashi Life Science Bldg. #7
1-9-10 Nihonbashi Horidome-cho, Chuo-city, Tokyo 103-0012, Japan
Mie University Intergrated Research Building II Room 411
1577 Kurimamachiya-machi, Tsu, Mie 514-8507, Japan
Joint Research Laboratory
Executive Profiles
Kosuke Matsunaga
President & CEO
Kosuke has over 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, specializing in brand strategy development, corporate business development, new business launches, and business strategy planning. He has held key roles across biotech star-up companies, Takeda Pharmaceutical Company, and AbbVie, gaining extensive global experience through his work in Japan, the United States, and France.
In 2007, Kosuke joined Osaka University spin-out biotech start-up company. He later worked at Takeda Pharmaceutical Company in 2012, AbbVie in 2020, and Reborna Biosciences in 2022.
He earned his degree from the University of Massachusetts Boston in 2007.
Kazuto Takesako, Ph.D.
Chairman of the Board
Prior to co-founding T Cell Nouveau Inc., built a career in research and development of pharmaceuticals and cancer immunothera-peutics starting from a chief researcher and deputy director of the Biotechnology Research Institute of Takara Shuzo Co., Ltd. from 1976. As an executive officer and senior managing director of Takara Bio Co., Ltd., oversaw the gene therapy drug business in 2002 - 2019, Currently, a visiting professor at Mie University and CEO of Cell Consulting.
Ph.D. from the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, University of Tokyo.
Masanobu Kimura, M.S.
Senior Vice President, COO
Before TCN, he has been consistently engaged in research and development in the field of oncology clinical development, most recently in Takara Bio Inc.:
since April 2015 as Deputy General Manager of the Gene Medicine Business Division and Project Promotion Manager;
since June 2016 as Executive Officer;
since June 2017 as Director and Managing Executive Officer;
M.S. in Pharmacy from Graduate School of Shizuoka College of Pharmacy.
Scientific Advisory Board
Yoshihiro Miyahara, M.D., Ph,D.
Professor
Department of Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy
Mie University Graduate School of Medicine
After graduation from Mie University School of Medicine, Dr. Miyahara entered the Second Department of Internal Medicine.
He conducted research at Baylor College of Medicine (Houston, Texas) and then Toledo University (Toledo, Ohio). After returning to Japan, he started his work as a lecture at Department of Cancer Vaccine, Mie University Graduate School of Medicine. From May 2016, he worked as associate professor at Department of Immuno-Gene Therapy. From March 2018, he has been working as associate professor and promoted to professor at Department of Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy.
Dr. Miyahara`s current research interests are analysis of immune responses and development of effective personalized cancer immunotherapy.
Hiroshi Fujiwara, M.D., Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Personalized Cancer Immunotherapy
Mie University Graduate School of Medicine
Dr. Fujiwara is majoring hematology, oncology, immunology and allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation from 1986. Clinically he also has been qualified as specialist of internal medicine, hematology, oncology and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. He had been a research associate at National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) / National Institute of Health (NIH) from 2001 to 2004 under the mentorship of Dr. John Barrett. He received Van Bekkum Award at the 37th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) in 2011 (entitled Engineered T-lymphocytes using a novel anti-leukemia antigen, Aurora-A kinase-specific T-cell receptor gene transfer successfully displayed anti-leukemia reactivity. Blood 2012 ) He has published more than 100 articles in this field, and has more than 2500 citations so far. He joined Department of Personalized Cancer Immunotherap of Mie University Graduate School of Medicine from July 1st, 2018, and his research interest is currently focused on the development of anticancer adoptive immunotherapy using TCR/CAR gene-modified immune cells and related technological advancement.
Strategic Partners
Mie University
World and Japan leading oncoimminology laboratory, which has been successfully promoting high level research to the global innovation frontier for decades while cooperating with leading industry partners as well as public institutions.