Start SEEING antibodies. Yamaha Motor Company—the Japanese manufacturer famous for its motorcycles, off-road vehicles and jet skis—is now setting its sights on molecular engines.
It has established a new U.S. subsidiary, Tuning Fork Bio, with the goal of entering the antibody profiling business and providing diagnostic tests for health checkups and pharmaceutical research.
Working in collaboration with researchers from Fukushima Medical University in Japan, the outfit plans to develop microarray technology capable of sifting through the tens of thousands of proteins that can be found within blood samples—to identify biomarkers that can be linked to not just specific diseases, but also the particular stages within a disease.
The tests rely on the evidence created by the human body when the immune system deploys distinct antibodies that target and bind to the antigens found on invading viruses and bacteria.
The antibody analysis technology developed at Fukushima Medical’s Translational Research Center is able to transfer a high density of proteins to glass slides—built from a library of more than 20,000 representing different potential antigens, the company said.
When a blood sample is applied to the slide, any antibodies present connect with their matching partner, creating patterns that can be linked to various infections or autoimmune conditions. The company said it plans to compare profiles between healthy and sick people to hopefully identify the hidden changes that occur within the body as a condition begins to take hold, with the ultimate goal of being able to direct them to more specific treatments.
Tuning Fork—the name nodding not only to the characteristic Y-shaped antibody, but also to Yamaha’s early history as a musical instrument maker—will mainly focus on products for the U.S. and Japan, the company said, with its headquarters in Delaware and an R&D partner in a separate Tokyo-based subsidiary.
The company is not Yamaha’s first foray into healthcare research. Alongside its catalog of powerboats, industrial robots and flying drones sits the Cell Handler sorting and imaging system, designed to isolate both single cells and larger organoids. Tuning Fork was born out of the company’s partnership with Fukushima Medical, which was the first user of the Cell Handler hardware.
Yamaha said it has taken a strategic interest in the medical research and healthcare field and plans to eventually scale up its efforts into a future core business.