Dr. Takeshi Isoyama, who led the launch of Smart Research Lab in San Diego

Advancing Research for the Future: The Potential of Smart Research Laboratories in Research DX

October 31, 2025
Our Science
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As part of its strategic drive toward digital transformation (DX), Daiichi Sankyo has launched a state-of-the-art Smart Research Lab (SRL) in San Diego, California, USA, designed to establish an innovative drug discovery data platform.

This cutting-edge research lab is poised to shape the future of Daiichi Sankyo’s pharmaceutical innovation, and Dr. Takeshi Isoyama, head of lab smartification, has overseen the project from its initial conception through to its realization.

Realizing the Future of Drug Discovery through DX

The immense volume of continuously generated data coupled with ever-evolving digital technologies is fundamentally transforming every aspect of society, economy, environment, healthcare, and our daily lives. Against this backdrop, Daiichi Sankyo is actively pursuing DX by harnessing data and digital technologies to create new medicines for patients.

As part of these efforts to advance future pharmaceutical development through DX, in January 2025, Daiichi Sankyo established our Smart Research Lab (SRL) in San Diego, which is equipped with state-of-the-art technologies.

At the SRL, advanced robotics and in-house developed, sophisticated software is being utilized to significantly enhance the efficiency of drug discovery research, allowing the generation of data and its aggregation in a form that is easily accessible and usable.

This initiative not only accelerates the discovery process of drug candidates but also represents a critical step in collecting the vast amounts of data essential for next-generation drug discovery processes powered by AI.

Dr. Isoyama, who has been involved in a wide range of drug discovery research at both Japanese and global facilities, recognized early on the potential for further evolution in research through DX. This led to his proposal for the establishment of the SRL to the company and his leadership of its development from planning through realization.

"As part of Daiichi Sankyo’s DX vision,” Dr. Isoyama explains, “one of the key initiatives in R&D is ‘Lab Smartification,’ which integrates digital technologies into research spaces and processes to make them smarter. We see this as a driving force supporting the next generation of drug discovery at Daiichi Sankyo. The SRL is a concrete realization of this vision, integrating cutting-edge robotics with advanced proprietary software to efficiently generate and collect data."

Daiichi Sankyo’s First Internally Established Overseas Research Hub

San Diego is one of the leading life sciences and biotechnology clusters in the United States, offering abundant opportunities for collaboration with companies and universities in AI-driven drug discovery and robotics, which further influenced the choice of location.

Consequently, Dr. Isoyama cites ease of hiring DX talent with drug discovery experience by leveraging Daiichi Sankyo’s global network as the primary reason for selecting San Diego as the location for the SRL.

The SRL facility itself has been designed with a seamless workflow in mind, ensuring that researchers and engineers can collaborate closely within the facility. The laboratory comprises of more than twenty members, including both employees seconded from Daiichi Sankyo and locally hired staff.

This marks Daiichi Sankyo’s first initiative to establish its own drug discovery research hub in the United States. Dr. Isoyama explains that the preparation involved extensive trial and error.

“Establishing SRL presented major challenges not only on the technical side but also in building and maintaining the business framework over the mid to long term. While I have accumulated experience in drug discovery research, I had limited experience in business areas such as legal, procurement, and finance. Therefore, I worked closely with global experts specializing in alliances, legal affairs, procurement, and finance, collaborating on persuading management and preparing for the establishment of SRL.”

The ultimate purpose of SRL is to bring innovation to Daiichi Sankyo’s research processes and accelerate drug development and deliver innovative therapies to patients around the world quickly and efficiently, and by sharing this purpose widely internally and externally, the initiative has gained understanding and support from numerous stakeholders.

Image visual of SRL

Strategic Value through Automation and Software

At our SRL, drug discovery research can be conducted efficiently 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, through automation of experimental equipment using in-house developed sophisticated software.

Dr. Isoyama notes that SRL’s distinctive feature is not just automation of tasks, but also the capturing of the entire drug discovery data flow and the optimization of data generation and management with future utilization in mind. Standardized extensive data open the door to new scientific discoveries.

To achieve this, Daiichi Sankyo has developed new software that orchestrates all aspects of experimentation, from experimental design and sample management to robotic execution, data acquisition, and integration in a cloud environment.

This software also supports automatic collection of large volumes of data and AI-driven analysis, making it easier to leverage multifaceted data, and at the same time, significantly improving the reproducibility and productivity of research.

While physical laboratory work utilizes reliable existing robotic systems and automation devices, the software that controls various research processes is fully developed in-house. This approach allows for rapid adoption of existing technologies while creating an integrated platform optimized for Daiichi Sankyo’s unique research workflows.

Empowering Scientists to Develop Medicines Faster

By streamlining everything from experimental planning to robotic execution and data storage, manual tasks and time constraints are greatly reduced, enhancing the reliability of experiments and data. Large-scale evaluation of samples under various conditions is possible, accelerating screening and assessment processes and enabling continuous operation.

Dr. Isoyama explains the value SRL brings to researchers, “Drug discovery experiments often involve repetitive and time-consuming tasks that, while essential, can drain researchers’ time and focus. At SRL, these routine tasks are handled by robots and in-house developed software, freeing researchers from manual work. As a result, they can focus on high-value activities such as hypothesis formulation and strategic planning.”

SRL represents a groundbreaking drug discovery infrastructure for Daiichi Sankyo and will be key to elevating its research and development to a world-class level. This initiative marks a significant step toward delivering innovative medicines more quickly to patients around the globe.

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