CEO Message

CEO Message Heartseed Inc. CEO
                  Keiichi FUKUDA, MD/ PhD/FACC

CEO Message

Since its establishment in 2015, Heartseed has been conducting its research and development to realize cardiac regenerative therapy as soon as possible, with the mission of “Open the door for cardiovascular disease treatment with regenerative medicine”

Heart failure is a disease caused by necrosis of heart tissue due to a myocardial infarction and the like, resulting in a decrease in heart pump function. The number of patients is 1.3 million in Japan and 5 million in the United States. Heart tissue that has been lost cannot be recovered, and only heart transplantation has the potential for cure. However, the reality is that there is a shortage of heart donors and sufficient treatment has not been delivered.

For that heart failure, we are developing a therapeutic method to generate cardiomyocytes from iPS cells and transplant them into cardiac tissue. Since I first reported in the world that cardiomyocytes can be generated from bone marrow stromal cells in 1995, many clinical studies have been conducted to administer mesenchymal cells, but all have achieved insufficient effects. From then back on, based on the idea that the only way to treat heart failure effectively is to make and transplant a large number of cardiomyocytes, always keeping in mind the safety and merits of patients and the industrialization of regenerative medicine, we have been conducting research on cardiac regenerative medicine using ES and iPS cells.

With the support and cooperation of numerous companies, academia and the Japanese government, we are nearing the start of clinical trials of our lead pipeline, HS-001. In addition, in order to make cardiac regenerative medicine easily available in the world, we are also conducting research on next-generation pipelines and production of iPS cell effectively and efficiently. With the realization of true regenerative medicine in the field of cardiovascular disease, we will work together to make a better world and become a leading company in regenerative medicine. We look forward to your continued guidance and support.

Heartseed Inc. CEO,
Representative Director of the Board
Keiichi FUKUDA, MD/ PhD/FACC

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Keiichi FUKUDA

Keiichi FUKUDA, MD/PhD/FACCFounder and Chief Executive Officer, Representative Director of the Board

  • 1987PhD in Clinical Cardiology, Keio University Graduate School of Medicine
  • 1991Growth Factor Division, National Cancer Center Research Institute
  • 1992Dept of Mol. Medicine, Beth Israel Hospital, Harvard Medical School
  • 1994Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Michigan
  • 1995Lecturer, Department of Cardiology, Keio University School
  • 1999Associate Professor, Institute for Advanced Cardiac Therapeutics, Keio University
  • 2005Professor, Dept of Regenerative Medicine, Keio University
  • 2010Professor, Department of Cardiology, Keio University
  • 2015Founded Heartseed Inc.