Tokyo, Japan, August 6, 2013 - JSR Corporation (President: Mitsunobu Koshiba) and SCIVAX Life Sciences, Inc. (President: Satoru Tanaka) have entered into a strategic partnership to develop and expand the three-dimensional (3D) cell culture business. Through this agreement, JSR became a minority owner in SCIVAX Life Sciences and secured rights to sell its products to the global market via JSR’s global network including JSR Life Sciences Corporation in Japan/Asia, JSR Micro, Inc. in the US and JSR Micro N.V. in Europe.

SCIVAX Life Sciences has developed proprietary technology in novel 3D cell culturing. Its product, NanoCulture® Plate, has been used at various pharmaceutical companies and academic institutions for advanced drug discovery research, mainly in Japan and the US.

3D cell culture technology is a culture method to form in vivo-like 3D multi-cellular spheroids. Findings show that 3D cell cultured spheroids have characteristics more similar to in vivo cells than those cultured by other methods. As a result, 3D cultured spheroids are expected to accelerate further advancements in understanding the mechanisms of disease, development of novel treatments, drug discovery and more. Currently, NanoCulture® Plate is used primarily for cancer research but has potential to be expanded into other areas such as testing anticancer drug sensitivities and regenerative medicine solutions like iPS cells.

Through this partnership, the two companies will also collaborate to develop new applications of NanoCulture® Plate that utilize JSR’s polymer expertise combined with SCIVAX Life Sciences’ 3D cell culturing technology.