Advances in semiconductor fabrication and integration are enabling a new generation of health technologies capable of monitoring biological signals at the molecular level and translating them into actionable clinical insight. The MIT Program for Health Sciences and Semiconductors (HS+S), is a newly launched MIT initiative exploring how solid-state devices, advanced materials, and low‑power electronics can be combined with large-scale data and AI to transform disease detection and treatment.
This half-day event in Tokyo will highlight research such as solid-state nanopores for single‑molecule biosensing, CMOS‑compatible detection platforms, and hybrid systems that integrate microfluidics, electronics, and photonics. A panel discussion with industry leaders will examine how technologies designed for robustness, scalability, and clinical-grade performance can move from research prototypes to deployable health solutions.
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Please note: This is an in-person event; registration confirms your intention to attend on-site. No live streaming will be available, but ILP members will have access to archived recordings after the conference.
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Miki Kato joined the MIT Industrial Liaison Program as a Program Director in October 2021. Mr. Kato has over 20 years of experience in new business development, including various activities with MIT.
Prior to joining the ILP, Kato worked at FUJIFILM Corporation for 40 years in various new business development sectors. He was President of FUJIFILM Pharmaceuticals U.S.A., Inc., conducting the clinical trials of FUJIFILM pipeline drugs and leading the joint research project in drug delivery with MIT’s Koch Institute. During his tenure, he also collaborated with the Department of Electrical Engineering at MIT for digital camera’s CMOS image sensors and the Department of Materials Sciences and Engineering for high-speed photodetectors.
Kato has presented at several conferences at the Cambridge Innovation Center, including the 2018 Japan Innovation Forum with the Consulate General of Japan and the 60th-anniversary Kyoto-Boston sister city celebration Life Science Forum (2019) with the City of Boston, the Japan Society of Boston, and the Consulate General of Japan.
He holds an M.E. in Polymer Chemistry from Kyoto University and an M.S. in Management of Technology from MIT.
Chief Executive Officer, LINK-J Visiting Professor, University of Tsukuba
In 1993, Takahashi began his career as a researcher at a pharmaceutical company. Following a series of mergers, he became affiliated with Bayer Yakuhin, Ltd., where he led projects focused on new drug discovery and validation. During this time, he also contributed to regenerative medicine and iPS cell research as a senior researcher at the Kobe Research Center.
He later served as manager of cardiovascular project management within Bayer’s Product Development Japan division, overseeing cardiovascular projects. He was subsequently appointed head of the Primary Care Department in Medical Affairs Japan. In 2014, he was appointed head of Bayer’s Open Innovation Center Japan. In this role, he not only established the center but also led the first comprehensive partnership with Kyoto University. He also launched Bayer’s third startup incubator, CoLaborator Kobe. As a member of the Bayer Open Innovation Global Leadership Team, he played a key role in advancing open innovation in Japan.
In 2022, Takahashi left Bayer and joined LINK-J as President & COO, where he has been contributing to the development of life science ecosystems in Japan. In April 2026, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer.
Senior Vice President and CTO, Texas Instruments Professor of the Practice, MIT EECS
Ahmad Bahai is a senior vice president and chief technology officer (CTO) of Texas Instruments, responsible for guiding breakthrough innovation, corporate research, and Kilby Labs.
Dr. Bahai is a Professor of the Practice at MIT, an IEEE Fellow, and a member of the US Department of Commerce’s Industrial Advisory Committee related to the CHIPS for America Act. He was an adjunct professor at Stanford University from 2017 to 2022 and a professor in residence at the University of California, Berkeley from 2001 to 2010. Throughout his career, Dr. Bahai has held a number of leadership roles, including director of research labs and chief technology officer of National Semiconductor, technical manager of a research group at Bell Laboratories, and founder of Algorex, a communication and acoustic IC and system company that was acquired by National Semiconductor.
He holds a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering from Imperial College, University of London and a doctoral degree in Electrical Engineering from UC Berkeley.
The convergence of innovations across health sciences, semiconductor technology, and artificial intelligence is poised to fundamentally reshape personalized healthcare. Advances in biochemistry, microelectronics, and AI have already transformed nearly every aspect of modern life; their intersection now presents a particularly compelling opportunity in health and life sciences.
Real-time monitoring of biomarkers with clinical-grade accuracy enables deeper insight into disease progression and supports more precise and timely diagnostic and therapeutic interventions. At the same time, the growing availability of large, high-quality datasets—coupled with increasingly sophisticated AI algorithms—creates new pathways for understanding disease mechanisms at the molecular level.
A notable example of this convergence is the use of solid-state nanopores for single-molecule detection. Nanopore technologies are driving a new generation of biosensing and sequencing platforms. Unlike biological nanopores, solid-state nanopores are fabricated in materials such as silicon nitride membranes using advanced lithographic techniques, offering superior robustness and design flexibility. Their higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), along with compatibility with CMOS integration, is critical for scalable, high-throughput implementations.
Key technical challenges remain, including improving the consistency of pores and the controlled slowdown of molecular translocation to improve detection resolution. Addressing these challenges, along with seamless integration with CMOS, will enable increasingly complex systems that combine microfluidic, electronic, and photonic components. Emerging architecture which incorporates photonic waveguides to enhance sensitivity—illustrate the potential of these hybrid platforms to significantly advance next-generation biosensing technologies.
Director, Institute for Medical Engineering & Science (IMES) J. W. Kieckhefer Professor, MIT Department of Chemistry Extramural Member, The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT
Alex K. Shalek, PhD, is the Director of the Institute for Medical Engineering & Science (IMES), the J. W. Kieckhefer Professor in the Department of Chemistry, and an Extramural Member of The Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT. He is also an Institute Member of the Broad Institute, a Member of the Ragon Institute, an Assistant in Immunology at MGB, and an Instructor in Health Sciences & Technology at HMS. Dr. Shalek received his bachelor's degree summa cum laude from Columbia University and his Ph.D. from Harvard University in chemical physics under the guidance of Hongkun Park, and performed postdoctoral training under Hongkun Park and Aviv Regev (Broad/MIT). His lab’s research is directed towards the development and application of new approaches to elucidate cellular and molecular features that inform tissue-level function and dysfunction across the spectrum of human health and disease. Dr. Shalek and his work have received numerous honors including a NIH New Innovator Award, a Beckman Young Investigator Award, a Searle Scholar Award, a Pew-Stewart Scholar Award, the Avant-Garde (DP1 Pioneer) Award from the National Institute for Drug Abuse (NIDA), and an Alfred P. Sloan Research Fellowship in Chemistry, as well as the 2019-2020 Harold E. Edgerton Faculty Achievement Award at MIT and the 2020 HMS Young Mentor Award.
During chronic stress, cells must support both tissue function and their own survival. Hepatocytes perform metabolic, synthetic, and detoxification roles; with chronic nutrient imbalances, metabolic stress can precipitate metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD, formerly NAFLD/NASH). Despite prior work on stress-induced drivers of hepatocyte death, the functional impact of chronic stress on surviving cells remains unclear. In my talk, I will discuss how we used cross-species longitudinal single-cell multi-omic profiling to show that ongoing stress drives developmental and cancer-associated programs in non-transformed hepatocytes while reducing mature functional identity – significantly before transformation and predicting worsened human survival. Further, I will outline how we developed and applied integrative computational methods and experimental validations to uncover master regulators perturbing hepatocyte functional balance, increasing proliferation under stress, and directly priming future tumorigenesis. I will also explain how we utilized human tissue microarray spatial transcriptomics and geographic regression to reveal spatially-structured multicellular communities and signaling interactions shaping stress responses. Finally, toward counteracting these core mechanisms driving tissue dysfunction and instability, I will present our development of a new information-rich, high-throughput phenotypic screening platform, with reduced required sample, labor, and cost requirements, that can be leveraged to help discover strategies to improve tissue health and resilience.
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