From:Nikkei Asian Review
TOKYO -- Toyo Seikan Group Holdings, a Japanese company best known for making cans and other containers, hopes to make a name for itself in DNA chips, a field that at first glance bears little relation to its bread-and-butter operations.
DNA chips are a type of equipment used in genetic testing. In April, the company began selling kits that help food makers detect bacteria and mold that can cause food poisoning. While this may appear to be an almost random diversification move, the company has in fact accumulated a lot of know-how on food poisoning from its main business.
A member of Toyo Seikan's development team studies DNA chips at the company's lab in Kawasaki, near Tokyo.
No germs allowed
At Genogate Science Labs, Toyo Seikan's research laboratory in Kawasaki, near Tokyo, germs are the enemy. Just to enter the building, people must take an air shower to prevent microorganisms from tagging along. Researchers who want to get their hands on a DNA chip have to don sterilized white uniforms and pass through a series of five doors.
Toyo Seikan's chip is a square measuring 3mm per side. It has 64 depressions into which DNA fragments are placed.
When the genes of bacteria that can cause food poisoning, such as E. coli or salmonella, make contact with the chip, the DNA reacts and a fluorescent material shines. The location of the fluorescent spot indicates the type of bacteria.
"In industrial applications, it is possible to check for as many as four types of bacteria simultaneously," said Hidehiko Kunimasa, manager of Toyo Seikan's life science business promotion office.
The most noteworthy characteristic of the chip is its surface -- a membrane of carbon crystals only several nanometers thick. By using carbon crystals, multiple DNA samples can be attached with precision. This makes it possible to simultaneously test for different types of bacteria with a single chip.
It used to be that a test could target only one type of bacteria. Being able to test for up to four types at the same time saves a lot of work. A task that used to take four days can now be completed in about two days.
DNA chips are typically made of resin, not carbon materials. However, the highly adhesive nature of resin often makes it difficult to fix DNA in the desired location. The carbon crystal coating solves that problem, and Toyo Seikan subsidiary Toyo Kohan is the only company that possesses the technology for creating a thin, smooth coating of that material.
Toyo Kohan manufactures steel sheet used in beverage cans. It also polishes and coats the surface of hard disks. The expertise it has built up in this area led to the development of the superthin coating process for DNA chips.
Toyo Kohan has been developing DNA chips since 1999. While most of the chips developed by other companies are primarily for medical use, parent Toyo Seikan has restricted its focus to applications in the food and beverage industry.
The company knows bacteria and mold. That is because Toyo Seikan not only makes containers, it also fills containers with food and beverages on behalf of clients. Because it handles such perishables, the company has conducted extensive research on what kinds of bacteria cause food poisoning.
The DNA chip test kit was developed with food factories and distribution sites in mind. Tests will cost about 6,000 yen ($48) apiece. The company targets annual sales of 200,000 to 300,000 units in several years.
Clean condiments
One company that is keen to try out the test kit is Kewpie, the Japanese mayonnaise king. The company has decided to introduce the equipment at some of its domestic plants, and it may do so at overseas sites in the future as well.
Cost could be a barrier to popularizing the tests, however. The chip reader alone would set a company back about 4 million yen. Then there's the fact that each test costs about 6,000 yen. "For full-scale use, we need the cost to come down to around 1,000 yen," said Takashi Miyashita, deputy director of Kewpie's food safety science center.
