About the Smartcell Project

Biotechnology has remarkably evolved and developed by being fused with cutting-edge digital technologies, such as IT and artificial intelligence (AI). Along with this, material production technology using living organisms, such as plants and microorganisms, is drawing attention, and is expected to lead to a rapid expansion of related markets around the world in the future. In line with this trend, efforts are currently underway to capture the market, particularly in Europe and the United States. In order to ensure Japan's competitiveness, it is necessary to establish Japan's unique technologies that fuse rational genetic design by utilizing information technology and large-scale genetic recombination.

For 5 years from 2016 to 2020, NEDO has engaged in a project, which is called "Development of Highly Functional Materials Production Technologies Using Plants and Other Organisms." We are conducting research and development of a system for obtaining complex, large-scale bioinformation that is required for genetic design in a high-throughput manner, intracellular process design, domestic genome editing technologies, and technologies for controlling plant breeding and growing. By controlling and modifying the material producing functions of living organisms, such as microorganisms and plants, utilizing these technologies, we aim to commercialize the "Smart Cell Industry" that produces highly functional materials at low cost in an energy-efficient manner.

Smartcell Project

Project Overview of the NEDO Project "Development of Highly Functional Materials Production Technologies Using Plants and Other Organisms."
https://www.nedo.go.jp/activities/ZZJP_100118.html

Focus NEDO No. 70. Smart Cell Industry Opens the Way for the Future by Bio-Digital Technologies: Challenges of Open Innovation!
https://www.nedo.go.jp/library/ZZ_focus_70_index.html

FocusNEDO 第78号が発行されました。「特集２」で環境にやさしいスマートセル技術が掲載されています。
https://www.nedo.go.jp/library/ZZ_focus_78_index.html

スマートセル・プロジェクト成果集パンフレットが発行されました。
https://www.nedo.go.jp/library/pamphlets/ZZ_pamphlets_00054.html

Nature誌（Volume 584, Issue 7819, 6 August 2020）に掲載された特集の別刷り版ができました。
Focal Point － Synthetic Biology in Japan　　　日本語版　（PDF 4.2MB）　／　英語版　（PDF 2.7MB）

Microorganisms

Abstracts of the NEDO Smart Cell Project Technology Seminar, "Building and Demonstration Testing of Platforms Creating Smart Cells"
https://www.jba.or.jp/activity/adv_biotech/rd_project/2220/

(一財)バイオインダストリー協会の機関誌「バイオサイエンスとインダストリー」に連載した"高生産性微生物創製技術とその応用例"を1冊にまとめました。
https://www.jba.or.jp/nedo_smartcell/outreach_bandi/HTML5/pc.html#/page/1

Genome editing

Genome Editing Industrialization Network
http://www.mls.sci.hiroshima-u.ac.jp/smg/GEIN/index.html

Other relevant sites

Materials Technology and Nanotechnology Department of NEDO
https://www.nedo.go.jp/activities/introduction4.html

Japan Bioindustry Association
https://www.jba.or.jp/

Video on the Related Institutions

■Video on the Biofoundry Laboratory of Kobe University

微生物育種の効率化、スマートセルの高速創出に資する要素技術を集積したバイオファウンドリー研究室を、神戸大学統合拠点に整備しました。（2020年10月）