Selected Startups Announced! The Masterclass Program by BioLabs

[Company Overview]
CancerFree Biotech specializes in the cultivation of circulating tumor cells (CTCs), focusing on individualized analysis. Our CTC-derived organoid (CDO) system supports doctors and patients in selecting optimal cancer treatments and helps minimize unnecessary drug use. We also collaborate with pharmaceutical companies to reduce animal testing by providing alternatives like AI-based models and organ-on-a-chip platforms. By enabling early prediction of clinical trial outcomes and identifying promising directions, our approach contributes to a “sandbox clinical trial” ecosystem that accelerates safe, cost-effective drug development.

[Expectations and Aspirations for this program]
Through the Masterclass Program, We hope to gain practical insights from industry leaders and fellow participants. By deepening my understanding of innovation strategies, global market entry, and scaling sustainable biotech businesses, we aim to further refine our company’s expansion strategy in the Japanese market. We also look forward to building meaningful networks that could lead to future collaborations and strategic partnerships. 

[Company Overview]
INOPASE is a clinical-stage medical device company pioneering personalized Closed-loop neuromodulation for treatment of chronic neurological diseases. Based in Japan with a subsidiary in Australia, our team is actively collaborating with partners globally to develop the next-generation Closed-loop sacral neuromodulation device to revolutionize care for patients with overactive bladder. Since its foundation in 2021, the device has demonstrated successful pre-clinical PoC in animal studies, paving the way for the clinical PoC study in Japan and Australia in 2025.

[Expectations and Aspirations for this program]
With our clear vision to the US market entry, we are looking for the connections with the US medtech investors through the BioLabs program support to prepare for the Series A funding in 2026. We are optimistic that our unique closed-loop neuromodulation technology meets the interests of the US investors and strategic partners. We are passionate about joining the BioLabs program to help us speed up the process to bring our technology to the patients in need.

[Company Overview]
We are a startup company aiming to realize a world in which cancer can be cured through the social implementation of cancer screening based on our proprietary RNA modification technology. We are advancing product and business development to bring screening services for cancers with high unmet medical needs into daily clinical practice—starting with pancreatic, liver, and gallbladder cancers, which have particularly low five-year survival rates. 

[Expectations and Aspirations for this program]
Our aspiration to join this program is refining the strategy into specific operational plans - specifically breaking down Go-To-Market strategy in the U.S. into granular action plans. Definitely, we need to develop the business model and build the relationships with the relevant stakeholders in the U.S. market that are systematically different from those in Japan market. In this situation, we have no doubt that we foresee a tons of challenges from pre-clinical stage to commercialization stage as well as difficulties of team formation & fundraising in the U.S. market. For tackling with all of these matters, we’d like to utilize this exceptional opportunity. 

[Company Overview]
Sothis Technologies is developing a self-service nucleic acid testing platform that delivers rapid, highly sensitive diagnostics without requiring on-site healthcare staff. Initially targeting deployment in clinical settings such as hospitals and clinics, our long-term vision is to make the system accessible in public spaces through regulatory advancement. Built on over two decades of research at the University of Tokyo, our compact and automated platform aims to reshape how society accesses diagnostics - anytime, anywhere.

[Expectations and Aspirations for this program]
Through the Masterclass Program, we aim to refine our strategy to transition from research-use-only to regulatory-grade clinical products. We seek guidance on business development, regulatory pathways, and investor readiness, as well as connections to pilot sites and early adopters. In addition, we hope to build a network of experts who can support long-term efforts toward regulatory innovation, enabling broader public access to diagnostics in non-clinical settings in the future.

[Company Overview]
Theta Therapeutics is bio-startup based on lab achievement at a university. We Theta focused on formulation development of macrocyclic drug candidates for intractable and rare diseases. Macrocyclic drugs are next-generation therapeutics with intermediate molecular weights and cyclic structures, distinct from conventional small molecules, nucleic acids, or antibodies. While these agents show promise in various diseases including malignant tumors, development often halts due to challenges such as poor solubility, toxicity, or inadequate target delivery. Our mission is to overcome these limitations by developing novel formulations that retain the efficacy of macrocyclic compounds while improving solubility, safety, and reducing side effects.

[Expectations and Aspirations for this program]
Through the Masterclass Program by LINK-J and BioLabs, we aim to gain insights into business development, joint research, and fundraising as a bio-startup operating in both Japan and the U.S. We also seek to build networks with mega-pharma and venture capital. By leveraging this program, we are committed to accelerating our efforts so that our innovative therapeutics can reach patients worldwide as quickly as possible.