2011 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Social Study of Industrialization and Technology Transfer in Regenerative Medicine

Research Project

Project/Area Number	22800021
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Research Activity Start-up
Allocation Type	Single-year Grants
Research Field	Sociology/History of science and technology
Research Institution	The Graduate University for Advanced Studies
Principal Investigator	MIKAMI Koichi 総合研究大学院大学, 学融合推進センター, 助教 (60589836)
Project Period (FY)	2010 – 2011
Keywords	再生医療 / 産業化 / 技術移転 / 産学官連携 / 社会構造
Research Abstract	Regenerative medicine is one of the advanced medical technologies that are politically promoted in Japan as well as in other developed countries. This study conducted in-depth interviews and fieldwork to understand the current situation in Japan and to illuminate the challenges for industrialization and technology transfer in this field. While Japan is renowned for its achievements in basic research, the process of shifting to clinical research and making industrialization tend to be delayed. From the perspective of sociology of science and technology, this study demonstrates that the social distances between academia, business and policymakers cause such delay.