Keio University School of Medicine

Suntory Global Innovation Center

About Us

More than just a passing boom, being health-conscious is becoming the global norm. More specifically, a lot of attention is being focused on the relationship between water intake and health in such areas as stroke and fluid replenishment during exercise. Extensive research is also being conducted on the water inside the human body.

“Water Channeling Life” is a collaborative project between Professor Yasui of the Keio University School of Medicine, a pioneer of research regarding dynamics of water in the body, and Suntory, which aims for a better coexistence between society and nature in line with our corporate message of “Bringing Water to Life.” The project is aimed at investigating the relationship between water and health.

“Cell biology of aquaporins”
“Aquaphotomics”
“Measuring of water flows in the human body and their simulation”
“Fluid intake amount of the Japanese people”

Experts in each of these four themes are combining their knowledge to improve people's quality of life.
Practical applications for the fruits of this research are also not far off.

Thinking about water means thinking about human health.
Please look forward to this project.

Q

Why are Suntory and Keio working on this research together?

A

Yasui : I still remember first seeing and being impressed by the Suntory corporate slogan of “Suntory: Bringing Water to Life” when I arrived back at Keio University from the United States.
In that instant, a specific image of common features shared with our studies of water biology appeared clearly inside me.
Ashikari : “Suntory: Bringing Water to Life” contains our hopes as a business that utilizes water and is useful for water for contributing to the realization of a sustainable society. One actual initiative aimed at realizing this hope is the “Suntory Natural Water Sanctuary” project, which is involved in the achievement of sustainable groundwater resources through forest maintenance on a scientific basis. Still, as Professor Yasui felt, the phrase “Bringing Water to Life” also applies to the water in the body.
Yasui : Water is one of the indispensable components of all life on earth. Humans are no exception. We take several liters of water a day for drinking and cooking purposes, and excrete roughly the same amount in urine and sweat. Everyone does this unconsciously. How is this in/out of water maintained so dynamically and accurately? And by what routes and at what speed does this water flow around the body? Why do we have to exchange several liters of water every day? These are just a few of the questions that seem easy but are actually difficult to answer. The discovery of the water channel aquaporin (Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 2003) offered some big clues to the answers. However, the questions can still not be answered fully. In our laboratory, we have therefore proposed the new concept of “water biology” to deepen our understanding of water molecules in living things while developing new measuring techniques, starting with research on aquaporins.
Ashikari : Suntory is a drink manufacturer and almost all of the drinks we supply consist of water. What fate awaits water after it is drunk? In human adults, water makes up two thirds of the body, and several percent of this is lost in the course of a day. Water is constantly circulating around the body to preserve life. “Bringing Water to Life” does not just mean protecting water resources. We felt that it also meant understanding the role of the water flowing in our bodies and maintaining a healthy circulation of water in the body. At around this time, we met Professor Yasui, who has been focusing on research regarding to the water in the body and has proposed the concept of water biology, and we began to realize more deeply the importance of understanding the role of water in the human body. As a drink manufacturer, we started to think that we needed to understand the role of water incorporated into the body after consumption and its flow through the body more deeply than any other company.
Yasui : I had several fortuitous meetings with Suntory managers and staff at the start of this joint research. We hope to use this joint research to deepen our understanding of why we need water and the roles water plays in life, and I hope everyone will think about the importance of water while proposing a firm scientific basis for this. The “Water Channeling Life” project started with this idea.

Q

How will understanding about water help our bodies?

A

Watanabe : Water is the major constituent of the human body and makes up about 60% of body weight, with some variation for factors such as age. It has many roles in terms of maintaining human life and health, it comprises the intracellular fluid and extracellular fluid (plasma and interstitial fluid) in our body, provides a medium for biochemical reactions, and has the function as a solvent for the transport of nutrients and the excretion of waste products. In addition, it is also important for the regulation of body temperature (1). Better understanding on how water taken from food and drink flows in the body, what functions it performs, and how it is excreted in urine or sweat, is expected to provide new knowledge that can be used to maintain health in daily life in terms of how we eat and drink.
[References]
1)Kleiner SM. Water : an essential but overlooked nutrient. J Am Diet Assoc 1999 ; 99 ; 200-6