The research project “抗原特異的免疫デジタルツインによる生成免疫学の創成” has been selected for Strategic Target 2 of the Strategic Target Type in the Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) program “ARiSE (AI to Redesign Scientific Exploration).” The project is led by Associate Professor Masahito Ohue (School of Computing, Institute of Science Tokyo) as Project Leader, together with Team Director Kazuyoshi Ishigaki (RIKEN Center for Integrative Medical Sciences) as Project Co-Leader. Yanagisawa participates as a Group Leader in the Immunoinformatics Team (led by Associate Professor Ohue), responsible for protein surface analysis. The project is scheduled to run from October 2026 to March 2029.
The project will develop an “antigen recognition foundation model” that handles T-cell receptors (TCRs) and B-cell receptors (BCRs/antibodies) in an integrated manner and learns the molecular recognition principles common to both. Building on this model, the project aims to construct “antigen-specific immune digital twins” based on the immune profiles of individual patients, and to develop AI technologies that generate TCR and antibody candidates recognizing specific antigens, with applications in drug discovery, diagnostics, and vaccine development.
For details of the project, please see the announcement from the Ohue Laboratory (in Japanese). The list of selected projects is available in the JST press release (in Japanese).
(translated by Claude)