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Toray Wins Prestigious Award for 2022 from Society for Anti-Thrombogenic Polymer and Artificial Kidney Advances

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Feb. 27, 2023

Toray Industries, Inc.


Tokyo, Japan, February 27, 2023 – Toray Industries, Inc., announced today that it and the Toray Research Center, Inc. (TRC), have received a 2022 Technology category award from the Society of Polymer Science, Japan. 

This recognition was for two advances. One was designing an anti-thrombogenic (which means preventing blood from coagulating) polymer based on a hypothesis focusing on the mobility of adsorbed water interacting with polymers. It was to that end that the company integrated its core nanotechnology and computational chemistry with TRC’s advanced analytical technology. The other advance was to commercialize artificial kidneys with enhanced anti-thrombogenicity that employs this technology, helping improve the quality of life of patients with chronic and acute renal failure.

Toray aims to deploy this technology with an array of medical materials to create new medical devices with enhanced anti-thrombogenicity.

Award details are as follows. 
 
1.    Award title
Design of Anti-Thrombogenic Polymer Focusing on How Water Interacts with It and Commercialization of Artificial Kidney
 
2.    Recipients of 2022 Technology category award from Society of Polymer Science, Japan
•    Yoshiyuki Ueno, Chief Research Associate at Medical Devices & Materials Research Laboratory of Advanced Materials Research Laboratories, Toray Industries, Inc.
•    Masaki Fujita, Research Associate at Medical Devices & Materials Research Laboratory of Advanced Materials Research Laboratories, Toray Industries, Inc.
•    Hiroyuki Sugaya, Director and General Manager of Advanced Materials Research Laboratories, Toray Industries, Inc.
•    Takeshi Baba, Researcher at Pharmaceutical Research Laboratories, Toray Industries, Inc.
•    Masaru Nakada, Researcher at Structural Chemistry Laboratory 2, Toray Research Center, Inc.
 
3.    Features of award-winning technology
Blood coagulates on contact with foreign substances. Many medical devices must accordingly be anti-thrombogenic. Toray hypothesized that the mobility of water interacting with polymers is involved in their antithrombogenicity. It secured new design guidelines for antithrombogenic polymers by employing advanced analyses. Sources included molecular dynamics simulations and TRC’s neutron quasielastic scattering efforts.

It is particularly important for artificial kidneys to be anti-thrombogenic. The cylindrical case of this device incorporates around 10,000 hollow-fiber membranes that remove waste products from blood. Toray was the first in the world to adopt a new polymer, a first in artificial kidneys, to improve anti-thrombogenicity. The company has commercialized several various artificial kidneys for chronic and acute renal failure. Its products offer longer membrane durability than conventional counterparts and have less residual blood after treatment, thus enhancing the quality of life. 

Computational science made it possible to create anti-thrombogenic polymers. Toray is developing such polymers for catheters, blood testing chips, and other applications and materials.
 
4.    Applications to date 
The first product using this award-winning technology was Toraylight NV, a hemodialyzer for chronic renal failure that Toray launched in 2011. Others have been Toraylight HDF and Toraysulfone® NV hemodialysis filters and HEMOFEEL SNV, which provides continuous and gentle hemofiltration for acute renal failure. Sales to date have exceeded 100 million units. The technology has earned accolades for contributing to the quality of life and clinical efficiency in enhancing anti-thrombogenic performance.

Reference
About Society of Polymer Science, Japan, and award

This organization aims to contribute to basic research into polymer science and technology and drive practical applications by fostering academic culture and people who can spearhead progress in these areas, thereby helping societies to progress.

It instituted its award program to honor members for exceptional accomplishments in polymer science and technology and encourage further progress in those respects in Japan.

Toray’s Technology category awards from Society of Polymer Science, Japan, over the past two decades 
Fiscal years Research themes Recipients
2020 Developing and industrializing highly heat-resistant biaxially stretched polypropylene film for electric vehicle capacitors. Toray Industries, Inc.
Toray Thin Film Processing (Zhongshan) Co., Ltd.
Toray KP Films Inc.
Masatoshi Okura et al.
2015 Developing and industrializing nanolaminated polyester film Toray Industries, Inc. Wataru Goda et al.
2010 Developing and industrializing pore-controlled reverse osmosis membranes Toray Industries, Inc. Masahiro Henmi et al.
2008 Developing and industrializing biaxially stretched nano-alloyed film Toray Industries, Inc. Tetsuya Tsunekawa et al.
2005 Developing and industrializing high-performance fiber-reinforced plastic employing new composite technology Toray Industries, Inc., and Soficar Masato Honma et al.
2001 Researching and developing structure-controlled biaxially stretched polyphenylene sulfide film Toray Industries, Inc. Hiroaki Kobayashi et al.

Technology category awards from Society of Polymer Science, Japan
https://main.spsj.or.jp/c15/gaku/gakuran-e.php