HORIBA, Ltd. has selected the winners of the 2025 Masao Horiba Awards for promotion of research in analytical and measurement technologies from among scientists and engineers at universities and public research institutes worldwide. Launched in 2003, the 21st Masao Horiba Awards this year received 44 entries from scientists and engineers worldwide for their work in analysis and measurement Technologies Contributing to Next-Generation Healthcare. The screening committee, comprising seven esteemed scientists and engineers in the field, evaluated the entries with an emphasis on promise, originality, and potential as a unique measurement instrument or method. Based on this evaluation, three winners and one honorable mention were selected.
Award Winners and Their Award-Winning Research
【Masao Horiba Awards】
Dr. Noritada Kaji
Professor,
Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University
“Development of non-labeled, non-destructive single stem cell analysis technology for cell therapy”
Dr. Ryo Nishihara
Senior Researcher,
Health and Medical Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
“Development of a protein analysis technique using latent luciferase activity”
Dr. Takao Yasui
Professor,
School of Life Science and Technology, Institute of Science Tokyo
“Innovation in Liquid Biopsy with Nanowires and Its Clinical Translation to Next-Generation Healthcare”
【Masao Horiba Awards -Honorable Mention-】
Dr. Lin Huang
Associate Professor,
School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
“Plasmonic Nanoarray for Molecular Fingerprinting of Cancer Progression”
About Masao Horiba Awards
HORIBA, Ltd. established the Masao Horiba Awards in 2003 to commemorate its 50th anniversary. This award aims to support up-and-coming scientists and engineers both in Japan and overseas who are involved in research and development expected to bring about innovative analytical and measurement technologies. The major goal is to help further elevate the standing of measurement technologies in the science and technology field. The Masao Horiba Awards spotlight unique research and development of which results and future potential have global appeal by selecting specific themes within the analytical and measurement technologies field. Each year the Masao Horiba Awards are centered upon the selected principles and elemental technologies cultivated by the HORIBA Group.
Screening Committee for the 2025 Masao Horiba Awards
(Honorific titles omitted, in no particular order)
| Chairperson | Makoto Suematsu Director, Central Institute for Experimental Medicine and Life Science (CIEM) Professor Emeritus, Keio University |
| Judges | Alan Ryder Professor, School of Natural Sciences, University of Galway |
| Judges | Catherine Alix-Panabières Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Montpellier |
| Judges | Misako Hamamura General Manager, Japan Alexion Pharmaceuticals, GK. |
| Judges | Yutaka Yatomi Professor, Dean, Graduate School, International University of Health and WelfareThe University of Tokyo |
| Judges | Kazunori Yoshioka Deputy General Manager, Medical Solution Department, Bio & Healthcare Division HORIBA., Ltd. |
| Judges | Akinori Yokogawa |
About the Award Ceremony
Date : Thursday, October 17, 2025
Venue : Kyoto University
2024 Masao Horiba Awards Ceremony Program (Tentative)
1st Session: Commemorative Seminar (Starting at 2:30 p.m.）
・Winner presentations : Three winners and two honorable mention
2nd Session: Award Ceremony (Starting at 5:00 p.m.)
・Introduction of award-winning research
・Presentation of a certificate and prize money
Organizers of 2025 Masao Horiba Award
| Award Director | Atsushi Horiba Chairman & Group CEO, HORIBA, Ltd. |
| Chief of the Organizing Committee | Masayuki Adachi President, HORIBA, Ltd. |
| Vice Chief of the Organizing Committee | Hiroshi Nakamura Corporate Officer, Chief Technology Officer, HORIBA, Ltd. |
Eligible Fields and Background of the 2025 Masao Horiba Awards
Having survived the global SARS-COV019 pandemic. we are all acutely award to the rapid development of the mRNA vaccine for prevention of infection with the COVID-19 virus. In addition, the gain in popularity of PCR testing and antibody testing has allowed for a simplified screening for infection.
In the current post-COVID era, countries all over the world have established state-of-the art dual use production facilities enabling manufacture of biomedicines and vaccines. In these facilities during ordinary times, biomedicine products, such as cell and gene therapeutics, and antibody therapeutics that are essential for next-generation treatments, are being produced. But when a pandemic occurs, the system has to be modified for rapid vaccine production. Government and commercial investment in research, development, production, and QA/QC solutions to actively advance capability and capacity is happening locally, and each country is supporting vaccine and biomedicine production from development to manufacturing.
In today’s world, analytical and measurement technologies need to support basic research, such as ways to confirm immune function to decide if a drug should be used without requiring large equipment or special training, while still enabling fast and accurate diagnosis. Furthermore, applied research and production process development of the next-generation therapeutics should include creating evaluation methods to ensure quality from the early stages of biopharmaceutical development, and then establishing techniques to monitor products from cultured cells and components of the culture medium. For these efforts, it is essential to develop new methods to analyze and measure cells, biomolecules, and culture environments.
The 2025 Horiba Masao Award, in light of the above background, has chosen the main theme “Analytical and Measurement Technologies Contributing to Next-Generation Medicine” and targets new analytical and measurement technologies for cells and biomolecules that contribute to next generation medicine (basic research), and new analytical and measurement technologies for cells and biomolecules that contribute to biomedicine product development and production processes (applied research/production process development). The spotlighted research should exhibit goals towards developing the most innovative and effective techniques for the advancement of analytical and measurement technologies that contribute to people’s health, safety, and well-being, and based on this theme, we invited applications targeting such research.
Winners and their award-winning research
【Masao Horiba Awards】
Dr. Noritada Kaji
Professor,
Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Kyushu University
“Development of non-labeled, non-destructive single stem cell analysis technology for cell therapy”
Cell therapy*, an emerging technology expected to play a central role in new-generation medicine, requires the testing of graft cells to ensure their safety before transplantation. However, conventional methods of cell diagnosis mainly rely on identifying cells using markers (such as fluorescent protein labels) and analyzing internal DNA through destructive techniques like PCR, making it difficult to apply the diagnosed cells directly to cell therapy in clinical settings. Dr. Kaji has developed a technology that enables high-speed, label-free, and non-destructive measurement of cellular mechanical properties, such as stiffness and elasticity, at the single-cell level. This was achieved by integrating microscale compartments that are comparable in size to individual cells into a microfluidic device* and combining them with a simultaneous measurement system for electrical and optical signals. The technology enables rapid evaluation of cellular differentiation potential and accurate identification of cancer cells, all within an extremely short timeframe of just a few to several tens of milliseconds* per cell. This technology enables complete inspection of individual cells and is expected to contribute to improve screening method*4 in cell therapy, as well as to enhanced quality assurance and safety of cells prior to clinical application.
* Cell therapy: A treatment that restores lost body tissue or function caused by injury or disease through the transplantation of cells from the patient or a donor. It is expected to become an effective approach for treating diseases that have been difficult to cure with conventional methods.
* Microfluidic device: A device designed to precisely control and manipulate fluids within microscale channels. It is used in various applications, including cell handling, chemical reactions, and medical diagnostics.
* One millisecond: One-thousandth of a second (1/1000 second).
* Screening method: A method for efficiently selecting target cells from a large population of candidate cells.
Dr. Ryo Nishihara
Senior Researcher,
Health and Medical Research Institute, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST)
“Development of a protein analysis technique using latent luciferase activity”
Proteins are important biomolecules that can determine the presence or absence of disease or infection by measuring changes in their quantity or structure, and many measurement methods have been developed. However, conventional methods often required complicated operations, advanced techniques, and lengthy measurement times. Dr. Nishihara discovered that the spike protein* derived from the novel coronavirus causes the Cypridina-derived luminescent substance "luciferin*” to glow. Normally, luciferin emits light through the catalytic action of an enzyme called luciferase, but the spike protein acts as a substitute for luciferase to promote luminescence. Applying this phenomenon, he has developed a simple and rapid protein analysis technique that can detect the amount of spike protein in human saliva in one minute, simply by mixing Cypridina luciferin with human saliva. Furthermore, he demonstrated that by artificially modifying the chemical structure of luciferin, it can be used to detect not only virus-derived proteins but also human-derived proteins, and to evaluate the quality of antibody drugs. This new, versatile technology for protein analysis is expected to have a broad range of applications in the fields of medicine and drug discovery.
* Spike protein: A thorn-like protein present on the surface of a virus. It is responsible for enabling the virus to enter the body.
* Luciferin: A general term for substances that serve as substrates for the luminescent enzyme luciferase. They emit light upon oxidation. These substances include firefly luciferin, which is involved in the glow of fireflies.
Dr. Takao Yasui
Professor,
School of Life Science and Technology, Institute of Science Tokyo
“Innovation in Liquid Biopsy with Nanowires and Its Clinical Translation to Next-Generation Healthcare”
Extracellular vesicles* released from cells consist of proteins, microRNA, etc. and are involved in intercellular communication. Because extracellular vesicles convey information from the cells they originate from, those released by diseased tissues are attracting attention as potential biomarkers for various diseases. Dr. Yasui has developed technologies for producing and controlling various oxide nanowire* structures, creating nanowires suitable for the analysis of extracellular vesicles. Furthermore, he analyzed the interaction between the nanowires and extracellular vesicles and elucidated the mechanism by which they comprehensively capture extracellular vesicles. The developed nanowires are being applied to cancer detection through the analysis of extracellular vesicles in body fluids, i.e., the practice of “liquid biopsy*,” as well as to the prediction of cancer prognosis and the elucidation of the mechanisms of cancer metastasis.
* Extracellular vesicles: Membrane vesicles released from cells. They contain functional molecules inside and are used for intercellular communication.
* Nanowire: A thin wire-shaped object with a diameter on the order of nanometers (one billionth of a meter).
* Liquid biopsy: A technology for analyzing biological substances contained in bodily fluids such as blood and urine. This is advantageous over conventional tissue biopsies in that it can be performed repeatedly because it poses less burden on the patient.
【Masao Horiba Awards -Honorable Mention-】
Dr. Lin Huang
Associate Professor,
School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University
“Plasmonic Nanoarray for Molecular Fingerprinting of Cancer Progression”
Metabolic biomarkers* are critical indicators in the early diagnosis of cancers, and their sensitive detection and accurate analysis are indispensable for clinical decision-making. However, conventional diagnostic methods face challenges in sample pretreatment efficiency, detection sensitivity, and data interpretation. To address these issues, Dr. Huang developed an integrated system combining solid-phase metabolic molecule separation, enhanced mass spectrometry* detection, and AI-driven metabolic profiling. By innovatively designing porous materials with size-exclusion pores and biochemical affinity probes, she established a solid-phase extraction method that improves metabolic molecule enrichment by over 1,000-fold compared to conventional techniques. This breakthrough eliminates complex sample pretreatment steps and enables efficient biomarker isolation from minute clinical samples. Furthermore, through precise control of photothermal-electrochemical interactions, she engineered nanostructured substrates to amplify mass spectrometry signals, achieving single-cell-level detection sensitivity and 95% metabolite coverage. This surpasses the limitations of traditional liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry methods in throughput and detection range. Finally, by developing a deep neural network model*, she created a multi-cancer metabolic atlas that integrates high-dimensional data from clinical cohorts. This AI model achieves over 90% diagnostic accuracy for challenging cancers such as lung cancer, colorectal cancer, and cholangiocarcinoma, significantly outperforming conventional biomarker analysis methods. These technologies eliminate the need for invasive biopsies and enable rapid, high-precision cancer diagnosis. Beyond oncology, this interdisciplinary approach can be adapted for applications in precision medicine*, pharmaceutical development, and metabolic disease research.
* Metabolic biomarkers: Substances that indicate changes in the body’s metabolic state and serve as markers for disease detection or monitoring.
* Mass spectrometry: A high-precision analytical technique used to identify and quantify trace substances in a sample by measuring the mass of their molecules.
* Deep neural network model: A computer system that learns to recognize patterns in a way similar to the human brain. It functions by processing information through multiple layers of interconnected “neurons.”
* Precision medicine: A medical approach that selects the most effective treatment for each individual based on their genetic information, physical condition, and lifestyle.
