In April, Takeda and Kyoto University's Center for iPS Cell Research Application (CiRA) announced a $270-million, ten-year collaboration for developing clinical applications of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. The work will be conducted at Takeda's Shonan Research Center in Fujisawa, where 100 scientists, 50 from each partner, will be supplied with $170 million in funding over the decade to explore applications in heart, diabetes, neurodegeneration and cancer immunotherapy. Takeda has also committed another $100 million for research services (facilities, equipment and access to Takeda researchers). This deal signals interest from the Japanese pharma sector in stem cells, which has held the attention of the government since Shinya Yamanaka's work on iPS cells won the Nobel prize in 2012. Since then, the Japanese government has been pouring billions of yen into regenerative medicine generally and iPS cells specifically with the establishment of CiRA in 2010, under Yamanaka's direction (Nat. Biotechnol. 31, 272–273, 2013).