Overview

Unique Features and Strengths of EGBRC

Established on July 1, 2018, the Engineering Biology Research Center (EGBRC) at Kobe University is charged with the mission of exploring the frontiers of engineering biology by leveraging Kobe University’s unique features and strengths.
The EGBRC is also the sole research center in Japan that aims to create innovation in this emerging interdisciplinary field.

Our goal is to make the EGBRC a hub for innovation that combines “hardware,” or tangibles such as research space and equipment, and “software,” or intangibles such as researchers and intellectual properties. We will achieve this by building and expanding a research and development platform while simultaneously promoting advanced research and development through industry-university-government collaboration.

Building on our extensive track records of teaching/researching biology engineering and partnerships with outside institutions, we intend to shape the bioeconomy by creating the kinds of innovations that meet demand from the government and society at large, including bioproduction of a variety of useful substances.

Unique Features and Strengths of EGBRC

(1) Promotion of Interdisciplinary Research and Digitalization of Bioproduction

The EGBRC consists of four research units, each aligned with Kobe University’s core technologies—namely, the Synthetic Biology Platform Unit, Smart Cell Engineering and Bioproduction Research Unit, Advanced Analysis, Evaluation and Processing Research Unit, and the Bioeconomy Research Unit. By extensively promoting inter-unit collaboration, the EGBRC facilitates interdisciplinary work for its researchers.

In addition, the Bio-Digital Promotion Office has been created as a special cross-unit organization tasked with promoting “biofoundry” technologies, which have played a key role in pioneering the development of robotics and digital technologies used in the biotechnology field. The Office plays a leading role in driving the development of bio-digital platforms by constructing a collaborative framework between the Center's respective research units and Kobe University's graduate schools, as well as corporations and other institutions.

Research Unit Profiles

(2) Acceleration of Innovation through Integration of Social Science and Natural Science

As a research center where social science is integrated with natural science, the Bioeconomy Research Unit serves as an avenue for collaboration between faculty members of two different disciplines. This results in support for innovation and the development of commercialization strategies with a focus on acquisition of intellectual property rights, development of production engineering, and discovery of new markets.

(3) Partnerships with Outside Institutions

Partnerships with the Organization for Engineering Biology (OEB) and Biologics Center for Research and Training (BCRET) keep us updated on the latest developments in engineering biology and biologics fields around the world, making it possible for us to stay abreast of research and development as well as industrial trends and needs. This allows us to engage in exploratory research and development, which facilitates further advancement of research, industrial promotion, and human resource development.

Organization for Engineering Biology (OEB)

Biologics Center for Research and Training (BCRET)

(4) Promotion of International Joint Research

Through membership in the Global Biofoundries Alliance (GBA), in which there are discussions of "biofoundries," a body of integrated platform technologies in advanced biotechnology, the EGBRC contributes to the development of the bioeconomy by disseminating research findings, sharing the latest research trends, and developing business models.

(5) Availability of Research Space and Equipment

The EGBRC has made available a wealth of equipment and instruments that are necessary for research in engineering biology, a cutting-edge field that straddles multiple disciplines. By putting in place a system for shared use by researchers from both Kobe University and elsewhere, we support interdisciplinary research and industry-university collaborative research.