Metable opens the Future of Health through Metabolic Analysis Technology

Founded in July 2023, Metable provides services for precision analysis of human metabolites. The company’s strength lies in technology that detects internal bodily changes caused by aging and disease by analyzing metabolites in blood. The company primarily serves food manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies as clients, handling metabolic data acquisition used in clinical research such as supplement efficacy verification.

Metabolism refers to the series of chemical reactions from when a person eats and digests food, extracts necessary energy and body components, to excreting waste as urine and feces. Metabolism is closely related to diet, and conditions like diabetes and metabolic syndrome are known as metabolic disorders. Metable leverages this metabolic analysis technology and conducts significant business with food manufacturers working on anti-aging and disease prevention.

Metable’s greatest characteristic lies in its precision metabolite analysis technology called targeted analysis. This method focuses on specific biomarkers and measures them with high accuracy. Compared to comprehensive analysis (non-targeted analysis), it delivers more sensitive and accurate quantitative data. Targeted analysis requires determining optimal analytical conditions before measurement, involving significant pre-analysis costs and demanding extensive experience.

The company’s non-targeted and targeted analysis technologies are currently being adopted in joint research with major supplement manufacturers, utilized to understand metabolic differences between supplement users and non-users.

From Researcher to Entrepreneur

Metable is led by Takayuki Teruya. He spent 11 years at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) conducting human metabolism research under Professor Mitsuhiro Yanagida. Through research on aging and age-related diseases (dementia and frailty), Teruya’s team has long been engaged in exploring the relationship between healthy aging and metabolism, as well as searching for disease markers and aging indicators.

When his mentor Professor Yanagida retired in August 2022, Teruya found himself at a career crossroads. Since OIST had mechanisms to support researchers aspiring to start companies, he decided to try entrepreneurship using this support system, Teruya reflects on his founding journey. Thus, Metable began as a company providing metabolic analysis services to manufacturers with whom he had collaborated since his laboratory days.

Teruya says,

I understood that creating a company required investment and convincing people with a proper business plan. However, with uncertain revenue prospects, the typical startup approach of raising investment with grand visions didn’t seem suitable for someone without management experience like myself. So I decided to work within my own capabilities. This down-to-earth approach ultimately clarified our management philosophy.

This solid approach achieved steady growth, albeit on a small scale. Rather than pursuing large funding rounds or rapid growth, the focus on leveraging personal expertise to build customer trust relationships one by one enabled business development true to management’s vision without external investor interference.

Being a startup born from a research laboratory, Metable was blessed with opportunities to utilize advanced analytical equipment from before its founding. Since cutting-edge equipment requires users to learn through trial and error, the accumulated know-how became an invaluable strength. Additionally, the insight into “which metabolites are involved in health and disease” cultivated through years of research represents another competitive advantage.

Teruya continued,

In Japan’s contract analysis market, non-targeted analysis is mainstream, with little competition in targeted analysis. Beyond items measurable in standard blood tests, there are many metabolites researchers want to examine. We make it our strength to perform metabolite analyses that no one else does.

Indeed, globally, there are fewer than ten startups engaged in targeted analysis. Teruya chose a business model of partnering with Japan’s largest non-targeted analysis contract company, benefiting from the partner’s sales and distribution network while differentiating services and specializing in analytical operations.

Fortunately, being blessed with a strong partner from the founding allowed us to concentrate on service development.

Ethnic Metabolic Differences and Advances in Aging Research

The varying metabolic characteristics among races and ethnicities is also fascinating. Western (Caucasian) diabetes is characterized by decreased insulin action due to fat tissue accumulation, known as “insulin resistance,” while Japanese and East Asian types are often caused by weakened pancreatic insulin production capacity with aging. This relates to ethnic historical backgrounds.

Teruya explained,

Japanese people, who once led agriculture-centered lives, possess constitutions that regulate blood sugar with minimal insulin, which likely worked advantageously under famine or sparse diet conditions. Conversely, Westerners focused on hunting and gathering likely benefited from subcutaneous fat storage for energy reserves and body temperature maintenance.

Since Japanese have low insulin secretion capacity and tend to accumulate fat around internal organs, they’re said to have higher diabetes risk than Westerners in today’s abundant food environment. Additionally, diversification of dietary and lifestyle habits has complicated diabetes onset mechanisms. Against this background, individualized prevention and treatment approaches based on metabolic characteristics are needed.

For supplement manufacturers, this means deriving optimal products considering ethnic composition and lifestyle habits suited to target markets. For example, while supplements see major demand in developed markets, growing global health consciousness will likely expand significant growth potential to emerging markets.

The theme Teruya has pursued since his researcher days is metabolic changes related to healthy aging. Through years of research, his team gained insights that biological aging can be evaluated by combining multiple biomarkers that gradually change with age, including muscular, antioxidant, and glucose metabolism systems.

With diseases, it’s easy to identify clear numerical differences compared to healthy people, but healthy aging shows surprisingly little change with significant individual variation. By calculating aging levels based on metabolic information different from chronological age, we aim to provide information useful for proposing individualized anti-aging measures suited to aging differences and each person.

Regarding these aging and disease markers, several patents have been obtained at OIST, with companies licensing them. Social implementation leveraging foundational technologies cultivated at OIST is gradually expanding through collaborations with other companies.

Right-Sized Management and Future Created by Data Utilization

Metable currently operates with just two people including Teruya. There’s no interest in deploying large businesses by collecting substantial investor funding like conventional startups aiming for hockey stick growth. In fact, founding capital used accumulated personal funds as the foundation, supplementing shortfalls through borrowing—a solid approach.

Behind Teruya’s attitude of advancing Metable’s business step-by-step at his own pace lies a bitter experience from previously working at a drug discovery venture. That venture sought to raise investor funds and license development compounds to major pharmaceutical companies, but he witnessed business direction changing dramatically according to investor intentions. At the time, Teruya was engaged in research seeking next drug discovery seeds from Okinawa’s natural resources, but this was also discontinued due to investor intentions to “concentrate management resources” accompanying capital increases.

From this experience, Teruya learned that “to launch a venture, you need something to sell from the beginning or management quickly becomes unsustainable.” With shareholder intentions having major influence and managers needing to persuade and negotiate with them, his recognition that “unless managers properly understand their own strengths, weaknesses, and technical aspects, the company will head in strange directions” led to strong desires to handle management himself, at least initially.

While Metable’s business core is metabolite analysis, future challenges involve utilizing data obtained from it. Teruya expresses hope,

Since our strength is producing wet information (primary information from experiments), adding technology to process this into forms consumers can use would enable new possibilities.

AI development expands possibilities, but leveraging this requires data science talent. Going forward, he welcomes entry from completely different industries, seeking personnel who find fulfillment in creating new businesses from data.

Future prospects include two directions: B2B research and development expanding analysis targets more broadly, and B2C service development directly collecting blood from general consumers to evaluate aging and disease risks. For the latter, Teruya considers long-term deployment over 5-10 years.

In Japan’s aging society, demand for anti-aging and health maintenance services utilizing metabolic analysis technology is expected to increase further. While aging research was once thought to be unprofitable “(since it’s not a disease),” it has gained spotlight as aging comes to be viewed as one disease risk factor. Since healthy longevity also contributes to national medical cost reduction, government promotion and such social backgrounds support Metable’s business growth.

Teruya says,

I think our business is in a field that really matches the times. With wearable device development making it easier to notice signs of illness and poor health, people’s health consciousness has risen. With social challenges around extending healthy lifespan, there’s a trend toward recommending self-care through supplements, and we feel market tailwinds. While metabolism has racial and regional differences, if one model works in Okinawa, it could potentially expand nationwide and overseas.

We look forward to watching future developments from Metable, which combines knowledge and analytical technology related to health and longevity.