Latest news with #Keio
South China Morning Post
08-05-2025
- Business
- South China Morning Post
How AI is helping people recover lost belongings in Japan
Public transport service providers and other concerns in Japan are introducing artificial intelligence to categorise and catalogue lost items and provide information on where to return them. Advertisement Some 30 organisations have introduced a 'lost-and-found platform', developed by Tokyo-based information technology firm Find, at about 2,300 stations and other locations. They include the Sapporo City Transport Bureau and Tokyo's Haneda airport, as well as the Tokyo police force and the Oita prefectural police. Tokyo-based railway operator Keio has seen its rate of return of lost possessions increase to 30 per cent, up from less than 10 per cent before the adoption of the system. By centralising information on lost items, Find can help people recover lost items. Photo: When a lost item is turned in, transport or other workers take a picture of it with their tablets. Find's AI-based system then registers the colour, shape and other features of the item before storing the information along with the photos in a database.
Asharq Al-Awsat
22-03-2025
- Health
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Stem Cell Treatment Helped Improve Spinal Cord Injuries, Say Japan Scientists
A stem cell treatment helped improve the motor function of two out of four patients with a spinal cord injury in the first clinical study of its kind, Japanese scientists said. There is currently no effective treatment for paralysis caused by serious spinal cord injuries, which affect more than 150,000 patients in Japan alone, with 5,000 new cases each year. Researchers at Tokyo's Keio University are conducting their study using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) -- created by stimulating mature, already specialized, cells back into a juvenile state. They can then be prompted to mature into different kinds of cells, with the Keio researchers using iPS-derived cells of the neural stem. The university said on Friday that the motor function score for two patients improved after an operation to implant more than two million iPS-derived cells into a spinal cord. No serious adverse event was observed for all four cases after a year of monitoring, the university said. The research's main goal was to study the safety of injecting the cells. Public broadcaster NHK reported that one of the two was an elderly man who suffered the injury in an accident. He is now able to stand without support and has started practicing walking, NHK said. "We were able to achieve results in the world's first spinal cord treatment with iPS," Hideyuki Okano, a Keio professor who heads the research, said, according to NHK. Okano said the team hoped to move to a clinical trial that would be a step towards bringing the treatment to patients. The university received government approval for their initial study in 2019 and they carried out the first operation in 2022. Details of the patients remain confidential, but the team is focusing on people who were injured 14-28 days before the operation. The number of cells implanted was determined after safety experiments in animals.
South China Morning Post
22-03-2025
- Health
- South China Morning Post
Japanese stem cell research helps treat spinal injuries
A stem cell treatment helped improve the motor function of two out of four patients with a spinal cord injury in the first clinical study of its kind, Japanese scientists said. Advertisement There is currently no effective treatment for paralysis caused by serious spinal cord injuries, which affect more than 150,000 patients in Japan alone, with 5,000 new cases each year. Researchers at Tokyo's Keio University are conducting their study using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) – created by stimulating mature, already specialised, cells back into a juvenile state. They can then be prompted to mature into different kinds of cells, with the Keio researchers using iPS-derived cells of the neural stem. The university said on Friday that the motor function score for two patients improved after an operation to implant more than two million iPS-derived cells into a spinal cord. Advertisement No serious adverse event was observed for all four cases after a year of monitoring, the university said. The research's main goal was to study the safety of injecting the cells.
Al Arabiya
22-03-2025
- Health
- Al Arabiya
Stem cell treatment helped improve spinal cord injuries: Japan scientists
A stem cell treatment helped improve the motor function of two out of four patients with a spinal cord injury in the first clinical study of its kind, Japanese scientists said. There is currently no effective treatment for paralysis caused by serious spinal cord injuries, which affect more than 150,000 patients in Japan alone, with 5,000 new cases each year. Researchers at Tokyo's Keio University are conducting their study using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) -- created by stimulating mature, already specialized, cells back into a juvenile state. They can then be prompted to mature into different kinds of cells, with the Keio researchers using iPS-derived cells of the neural stem. The university said on Friday that the motor function score for two patients improved after an operation to implant more than two million iPS-derived cells into a spinal cord. No serious adverse event was observed for all four cases after a year of monitoring, the university said. The research's main goal was to study the safety of injecting the cells. Public broadcaster NHK reported that one of the two was an elderly man who suffered the injury in an accident. He is now able to stand without support and has started practicing walking, NHK said. 'We were able to achieve results in the world's first spinal cord treatment with iPS,' Hideyuki Okano, a Keio professor who heads the research, said, according to NHK. Okano said the team hoped to move to a clinical trial that would be a step towards bringing the treatment to patients. The university received government approval for their initial study in 2019 and they carried out the first operation in 2022. Details of the patients remain confidential, but the team is focusing on people who were injured 14-28 days before the operation. The number of cells implanted was determined after safety experiments in animals.
Japan Times
22-03-2025
- Health
- Japan Times
Keio University team says stem cell treatment helped improve spine injuries
A stem cell treatment helped improve the motor function of 2 out of 4 patients with a spinal cord injury in the first clinical study of its kind, Japanese scientists said. There is currently no effective treatment for paralysis caused by serious spinal cord injuries, which affect more than 150,000 patients in Japan alone, with 5,000 new cases each year. Researchers at Tokyo's Keio University are conducting their study using induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) — created by stimulating mature, already specialized, cells back into a juvenile state. They can then be prompted to mature into different kinds of cells, with the Keio researchers using iPS-derived cells of the neural stem. The university said on Friday that the motor function score for two patients improved after an operation to implant more than 2 million iPS-derived cells into a spinal cord. No serious adverse event was observed for all four cases after a year of monitoring, the university said. The research's main goal was to study the safety of injecting the cells. NHK reported that one of the two was an elderly man who suffered the injury in an accident. He is now able to stand without support and has started practicing walking, NHK said. "We were able to achieve results in the world's first spinal cord treatment with iPS," said Hideyuki Okano, a Keio professor who heads the research, according to NHK. Okano said the team hoped to move to a clinical trial that would be a step toward bringing the treatment to patients. The university received government approval for their initial study in 2019 and it carried out the first operation in 2022. Details of the patients remain confidential, but the team is focusing on people who were injured 14 to 28 days before the operation. The number of cells implanted was determined after safety experiments in animals.
