Closing words on our Japanese mission 2025 from our CEO, Christina Vallgren

What an extraordinary journey these past days in Japan have been: intense, inspiring, and filled with moments that will shape the next phase of our work.

Our mission started in Osaka, where we were welcomed by the Consulate of Switzerland, Swissnex in Japan. Their support was instrumental in navigating Japan’s innovation ecosystem and opening doors to key partners across the country. A heartfelt thank you to Dr. Felix Moesner and the entire Swissnex team for guiding and accompanying us throughout this mission.

During that day, we also had the chance to meet with Maki Hamao and Takehito Okamoto from Micron, Inc., a Japan-based Imaging CRO with nearly two decades of experience supporting global clinical trials through advanced medical-imaging services. Micron specialises in imaging acquisition, centralized image review, quality control, and quantitative image analysis across multiple therapeutic areas.

The exchange with their team was truly insightful and opened the door to potential collaborations that we look forward to exploring further in the future.

From Osaka, we travelled to Kobe, where we advanced one of the key milestones of our roadmap.
We signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kobe Proton Center, marking the beginning of a collaboration grounded in shared ambition: integrating in-beam PET into proton therapy workflows and paving the way toward future clinical implementation.

The ceremony, hosted by Dr. Tokumaru, attended by the KPC leadership and supported by Swissnex, came after an in-depth facility tour and a warm reception that truly reflected our mutual commitment to innovation.
This collaboration will focus on structured technical exchanges, phantom studies and workflow integration, laying the groundwork for future clinical feasibility once approvals are in place. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Dr. Chris Wang and Dr. Nor Shazrina Sulaiman, who will be leading this effort together with our team. Their experience and energy will be essential as we advance this project in the coming months.

From Kobe we moved to Tokyo, where we participated in JASTRO 2025 at the Tokyo International Forum. This year’s meeting was one of the largest editions in the congress’s history, with more than 3,200 onsite participants.
Our booth became a space for lively scientific exchange: clinicians, medical physicists and industry leaders from all over Japan shared insights on how in-beam PET can strengthen quality assurance and in vivo verification in particle therapy.
Thank you to every person who stopped by, asked challenging questions, and helped us sharpen our perspective.
A special thank you again to Dr. Moesner for visiting our booth and supporting our presence throughout the event.

We concluded our mission in Chiba, with an inspiring visit to the National Institutes for Quantum Science and Technology (QST).
It was an honour to meet Prof. Taiga Yamaya, a global leader in next-generation PET, and to present our work to his group. Discussing our shared vision in front of his OpenPET and BrainPET systems was a moment that resonated deeply with our team: a reminder of how far the field has come, and how much more we can achieve together.
We also thank Dr. Masuda for the insightful tour of the HIMAC facility.

Four cities, dozens of meetings, new partnerships, and a renewed sense of purpose.

We return to Geneva inspired, grateful, and more committed than ever to advancing in-beam PET for the future of particle therapy.

🇨🇭🇯🇵 Thank you Japan.  We look forward to continuing this journey together.