Taira Kobayashi joined JAFCO in 2020. In the Academia-Industry Collaboration and Life Sciences Investment Group, he has invested and supported R&D startups in various sectors ranging from Deep Tech to drug discovery. He also serves as a JST-START project promoter, commercializing university-launched ventures, and gives lectures at universities and other institutions based on his career and experience.
Taira previously held a Medical Science Liaison - Central Nervous System and was involved in in-house business planning, including digital health business development and METI projects at TAKEDA Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd. From 2013 to 2017, he served as a researcher at TOYOTA Central R&D Labs, where he was involved in R&D across all engineering fields and promoted business development in neuroscience and artificial cells at the Strategic Research Division. Before TOYOTA, he served as an academic researcher at the Institute of Medical Science - The University of Tokyo(IMSUT) and promoted basic medical research in bacterial infection and innate immunity of human cells.
Taira holds a PhD in Life Sciences from the University of Tokyo. He co-authored several publications, including "Nature" , with the first authors of "Cell Host & Microbe" at the University of Tokyo, engaged in two intellectual property cases at TOYOTA, and wrote pharmaceutical papers at TAKEDA.
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/taira-kobayashi-b2184a184/