Icaria (Location: Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, CEO: Ryuichi Onose, hereinafter referred to as “Craif”) is pleased to announce that it received 3rd place prize for “Innovation Prize” at an entrepreneurship support program in the biotechnology field held by Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim Co ., Ltd. (Representative Director, Chairman and President: Yoshiaki Aono).

■ Outline of this Award
Craif’s project “Comprehensive analysis of urinary exosomal miRNA profiles for patient classification” was selected as one of the four most innovative and outstanding projects in the “Innovation Prize,” a program organized by Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim to support entrepreneurs. The “Innovation Prize” is a program that supports researchers, entrepreneurs, and start-up companies working on innovative drug discovery to realize their ideas, commercialize their products, and nurture their seeds under the vision of “Value through Innovation.”

■ Comments from CEO

Ryuichi Onose, CEO
　Craif is a startup company started from Nagoya University which has built an exosome biomarker analysis platform by capturing exosomes from urine using Japanese high quality technology and combining it with AI (Artificial Intelligence). This platform is being used in medicine to develop highly accurate tests for early detection of cancer from a small amount of urine, as well as tools for treatment selection and diagnosis for custom-made medicine.
　With this award, we will explore the possibility to collaborate with pharmaceutical companies, and contribute to society through drug discovery.