Q&A

Gil Bashe: You called Converge\OIST the “very first gathering.” Why did Okinawa feel like the right birthplace?

Yasushi Yamamoto: Yes, this is the very first gathering, and we named it Converge\OIST because I’m a big fan of ‘OIST’—the context of the birth, this location, these people. It was the right place and people, a great gathering, and a pleasure to meet old friends in such a beautiful, inspiring place.

Gil Bashe: Your career bridges Tokyo boardrooms and Jerusalem start-ups. Where did your obsession with “convergence” begin?

Yasushi Yamamoto: Innovation cannot be done in an isolated form; it should be done in collaboration with various fields. Professionals with beautiful résumés in Tokyo surround me, but many lack a broader vision. They are so good at something particular, yet it’s a pity they’re busy in silos. I saw the lack of collaboration and started my business, raising money from Japanese corporations for Israeli start-ups. That contrast—dinosaurs with big systems but little ‘challenging spirit’ versus entrepreneurs who ‘run and fix’—motivated me to build synergy between powerful pieces.

Gil Bashe: Modern medicine seems to multiply silos every year. How do you see convergence breaking that pattern?

Yasushi Yamamoto: Medicine has become hyper-specialized. We have gastroenterologists who only look at the upper esophagus or the colon, cardiologists in electrophysiology, and neurologists focused on one nerve pathway. They perfect an art, but they have blinders. Convergence is breaking down those walls.

Gil Bashe: Inviting violinists and AI ethicists to the same podium can feel radical. How did people react when you pitched this mix?

Yasushi Yamamoto: People would never believe me if I hadn’t done serious work in the previous decade. Thanks to that track record, we built trust. Gathering in Okinawa sounded out of context for many professionals, but it wasn’t curiosity but trust that made them come.

Gil Bashe: Every July, you disappear into Kyoto’s 1,200-year-old Gion festival to play the traditional Japanese flute. What does a month of music teach a CEO?

Yasushi Yamamoto: Back home, I’m participating and serving. When I set up my company, I realized it would never be greater than this festival. The experience makes me humble. I received a baton from previous generations and must pass it on to the next. After that month, I ask, ‘Two generations later, how will young people judge the work I’m doing now?’

Gil Bashe: You’ve spoken of building on three “wheels”: science, art, and philosophy. Where is Corundum on that journey?

Yasushi Yamamoto: We started in hardcore science and investment, then gradually expanded to art—like Leonardo da Vinci, artist and scientist in one person. In the coming three to five years, I will put the vehicle of philosophy on top. Combining great minds and spirit, we can create something AI alone cannot deliver.

Gil Bashe: What tangible outcomes do you want from Converge?

Yasushi Yamamoto: First, I want to support OIST, an institution I love. We held the first event there; followed by South by Southwest London. I want more gatherings in multiple locations, bringing talented people with good hearts.

Gil Bashe: You’ve set up subsidiaries for neuroscience, virtual mixed human-data AI, and the microbiome. Why those intersections?

Yasushi Yamamoto: Think of the gut–brain axis. Discovery comes from interaction: AI power, system biology, and the microbiome. Add the element of art to inspire other curious, intelligent people, and the community expands.

Gil Bashe: Food as medicine used to be folk wisdom; you’re turning it into data science. How?

Yasushi Yamamoto: We invested in a project from the Weizmann Institute—the deepest phenotype cohort, hundreds of people over 20 years with genes, metabolites, behavior, nutrition. We link ancient wisdom to ultra-modern science by layering AI on that dataset. We are converging the past, the future, and current ways of life.

Gil Bashe: Philosophy sounds noble, but ventures need cash. How do you square capital with conscience?

Yasushi Yamamoto: I strongly believe in setting vision on a solid philosophical idea, but also in the power of capital. Our job is to propose a hypothesis, bring capital, deploy people, and prove the hypothesis with action. So, we’re raising our next venture fund while creating the Corundum Convergence Institute, a U.S. 501(c)(3), as an alternative financing model to advance science.

CLOSING THOUGHTS

Yamamoto-san reframes the entrepreneur’s impossible triangle—mission, money, and meaning—into an orchestral score. Science provides the bass line, art supplies melody, philosophy sets tempo, and well-deployed capital funds the concert hall. As Converge expands from Okinawa to London and beyond, its founder is betting that harmony, not hierarchy, will unlock the next era of precision health.

The takeaway is disarmingly simple for the rest of us: when great minds tune their instruments to work in harmony, the walls separating our disciplines start to fall—and patients everywhere will hear the music of life-sustaining innovation.

According to Gil Granot Mayer, Executive Vice President, Technology Development & Innovation at OIST:

“In just two days, we managed to connect people from different disciplines and geographies, immersing them in the OIST spirit and Okinawa’s culture. From understanding the value of the long tail to different approaches to improving life through the Human Phenotype Project, or the understanding of a new aging mechanism associated with cell membrane damage. I hope that these new connections and cutting-edge talks will spark new collaborations and great results.”

The post Blending Renaissance Thinking and Collaborative Power to Address Global Health Challenges appeared first on Medika Life.

Date of Release: Nov. 11, 2021

BRISBANE, Australia,  /PRNewswire/ — Results published in Cell, led by Mater Research and The University of Queensland, show that dietary restriction drives microbiome diversity changes in autistic individuals.

In the largest study in the field to date, researchers analyzed stool samples using Microba’s metagenomic analysis, alongside other clinical and biological measures, to identify associations between the gut microbiome and diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

The collaborative study examined the complex relationship between the microbiome, diet, and other traits in autistic individuals, leveraging samples and dietary data of 247 children from the Australian Autism Biobank and Queensland Twin Adolescent Brain Project and involving more than 40 researchers across Australia.

Chloe Yap from Mater Research and The University of Queensland and lead author on the paper explained that the research represents a critical advancement in developing an evidence base on the gut microbiome-autism link, and challenges existing findings within the field.

“With Microba’s expertise, we were able to achieve high-resolution taxonomic information about the microbiome, as well as the functional information, to really examine the microbiome community at a deeper level than has been done before to investigate what link – if any – may exist.”

“While the data did not demonstrate a direct association between the microbiome and a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), the quality of that data enabled us to find that behavior and dietary preferences were driving the changes observed in the microbiome, with a less diverse diet resulting in a less diverse microbiome,” Ms. Yap said.

Given the increasing coverage on changes observed in the gut microbiome of people on the autism spectrum, Dr. Jake Gratten, senior study investigator and head of Mater Research’s Cognitive Healthy Genomics Group, said the results were significant.

“Microbiome-based interventions claiming to treat or minimize autistic traits are becoming more common, but there is yet to be convincing evidence that the microbiome drives autism,” Dr. Gratten said.

“Our findings provide much-needed clarity to parents and autistic people about the autism-microbiome link, something that was only possible using the latest technology. What our results highlight is that rather than relying on “fad” diets, we need to better support families at mealtimes,” he added.

Associate Professor Lutz Krause, Chief Scientific Officer at Microba and contributing author on the paper, said these results demonstrate the importance of high-quality research in investigating the microbiome and health connection.

“What we can see from this research is that precise and comprehensive measurement, with rich metadata associated with each sample, is critical in uncovering the complexity of the microbiome and elucidating the various factors that may be influencing the results,” he said.

“This level of precision is at the core of Microba’s approach, and it’s exciting to see our research partners making important new discoveries to advance the knowledge of how the microbiome is involved in our health to improve people’s lives.”

The paper, Autism-related dietary preferences mediate autism-gut microbiome associations, can be accessed online at the Cell website at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cell.2021.10.015

SOURCE Microba Life Sciences

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