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Technology

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Technology Background

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Enzymes, cells, organs, and other biomaterials have excellent functions, but their instability limits the environments, applications, and timeframes in which they can be used.

Professor Madoka Takai, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, has long studied zwitterionic polymers, which are biocompatible materials. The protective layer of water formed on the substrate surface by coating the substrate with this hydrophilic zwitterionic polymer inhibits adsorption of cell and protein to the surface of the substrate, thus stabilizing the bio-implantable device or artificial organ for a long time.
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Our Technology

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Our hydrogels can encapsulate biomaterials to immobilize and stabilize them for long periods of time. Hydrogels encapsulating enzymes can inhibit the deactivation of enzymes by organic solvents and bio-degradative enzymes in living organisms.
 
When the enzyme that degrades glucose is combined with our hydrogel in biofuel cells that generate electricity using glucose and oxygen as fuel, it improves the stability of enzyme. It can be expected generate electricity in vivo over the long term. 
Concept of biofuel cell
Our strengths are polymer synthesis technology for precision polymerization of zwitterionic polymers, interface technology for binding zwitterionic polymers to material surfaces, evaluation technology for biological substances, and application technology for environmental, chemical, and medical applications based on life science and bioengineering.

​Representative Paper and Patents

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  1. A Modifiable, Spontaneously Formed Polymer Gel with Zwitterionic and N-Hydroxysuccinimide Moieties for an Enzymatic Biofuel Cell, Yixuan Huang, Tsukuru Masuda, and Madoka Takai, ACS Appl. Polym. Mater., 3, 2, 631-639, (2021)

  2. Patent JP7359998B2, Polymer hydrogel containing zwitterionic groups

  3. Patent JP6407513B2, Polymers for Surface Modification of Medical Materials

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