Ahead Biocomputing, Co. Ltd. is a company that assists clients with their drug discovery and large-scale biodata processing, through the integration of bioinformatics, machine learning (deep learning, etc.), high-performance computing (supercomputer, cloud), and quantum computing which have been developed for many years at Tokyo Institute of Technology. By combining these technologies, we provide quick solutions to complex problems in the biomedical field.
Specifically, we provide a menu of a variety of technologies, tailored to our customers, “IT-based Drug Discovery” technology that supports intelligent navigation of drug discovery by combining virtual screening and molecular modeling technology, “Protein-Protein Interaction prediction” technology that supports the determination of drug discovery targets, “Genome Bigdata Analysis” technology that can achieve bacterial metagenomic analysis in various environments, like as intestinal and oral bacterial flora. We are also experienced in developing tailor-made software related to the above fields.
Our company was established in 2018 and received certification as a venture company (Tokyo Tech Venture No.92) utilizing the research results of Tokyo Institute of Technology. We believe it is our duty to quickly link the state-of-the-art technologies from the university to the needs of the industry.
Ahead Biocomputing, Co. Ltd.
Daichi Nishi, CEO
| Company name | Ahead Biocomputing, Co. Ltd. |
|---|---|
| Address | Kawasaki Frontier Bldg 4F, 11-2 Ekimaehoncho, Kawasaki-ku, Kawasaki City, Kanagawa 210-0007, Japan |
| CEO | Daichi Nishi |
| Established | December 7, 2018 |
| Phone | +81-44-440-3122 |
| Main business |
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Nishi graduated from the School of Law, Waseda University in 2014. He began his career at a life insurance company where he gained experience in private corporate sales and led the sales office to national awards as a team leader. He joined Computational Science Inc. in 2018 and he served IT consulting practice for system construction at Japanese National Research and Development Agencies. He has been a director of the company since 2019. Participated in the supercomputer "Fugaku" development project at RIKEN, operated and managed the developed test server, investigated open-source software. In 2021, he became the CEO of Ahead Biocomputing, Co. Ltd.
In 1990, Akiyama graduated with a doctorate in electrical engineering from Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University. After gaining experience as Researcher at Electrotechnical Laboratory in the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in the same year, as Associate Professor at Institute for Chemical Research, Kyoto University in 1992, as Director of Parallel Application Laboratory at Real World Computing Partnership in 1996, and Director at Computational Biology Research Center at National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in 2001, Akiyama became Professor at the Graduate School of Information Science and Engineering at Tokyo Institute of Technology in 2007 (The name of the organization was changed in 2016). At the same time, he served as scientific advisor for Modulus Discovery, Inc., and the president of Initiative for Parallel Bioinformatics (IPAB).
In 2018, Akiyama was appointed Director and CTO of Ahead Biocomputing, Co. Ltd.
Akiyama has engaged in research from the dawning of bioinformatics (biological information science), and worked to establish CBRC, Japan’s largest bioinformatics research center under the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, serving as its first director (a term of 6 years). He has been actively engaged in joint research with pharmaceutical companies, comprehensive analysis of human GPCR genes (joint research with the University of Tokyo and Taisho Pharmaceutical), glycoprotein analysis, peptide simulation, etc. At Tokyo Institute of Technology, he conducted research on bioinformatics and virtual screening for drug discovery using supercomputers and machine learning technology. In research on predicting clearance pathways of small molecule drugs in the human body, he has developed and released a prediction system based on machine learning, in collaboration with Professor Yuichi Sugiyama (RIKEN/Former Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, the University of Tokyo).
In 2016, he was involved in the establishment of Advanced Computational Drug Discovery Research Unit (ACDD) at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In 2013, Akiyama received the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare Award in the 11th Merit Awards for Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration (for the development of drug discovery research database for “neglected tropical infectious diseases”).
In 2014, Ohue graduated from the Graduate School of Information Science and Engineering, Tokyo Institute of Technology with a Ph.D. (Computer Science). In the same year, he was awarded a JSPS Research fellowship (PD). In 2015, he became Assistant Professor, Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Tokyo Institute of Technology. In 2024, he became Associate Professor, School of Computing, Tokyo Institute of Technology.
In 2018, Ohue was appointed Director of Ahead Biocomputing, Co. Ltd.
Ohue was responsible for the development of interdisciplinary research of bioinformatics and supercomputing, focusing on the development of protein interaction prediction software MEGADOCK. Ohue was received JSPS IKUSHI Prize from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) in 2014, Seiichi Tejima Doctoral Dissertation Award in 2015, FUNAI Research Promotion Award from the FUNAI Foundation in 2018, Young Scientist's Prize, The Commendation for Science and Technology by the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) in 2019, Oxford Journals JSBi Prize in 2020, and 35th Hiroshi Ando Memorial Academic Award in 2022.
The design uses the shapes of the letters “A” and “B” from Ahead Biocomputing as motifs. The logo symbolizes “reliability/a sense of security”, “refreshing/the future”, “thorough/accuracy”, “creativity/innovative spirit”, “elevation/growth”, a consistently professional service, and high quality through its spread and shine.
