Solute Carrier (SLC) transporters constitute one of the largest families of human membrane proteins, responsible for transporting a wide variety of solutes across biological membranes. More than 400 SLC transporters have been identified to date.

Although SLC transporters have been proposed as therapeutic targets in diverse areas including oncology, autoimmune diseases, metabolic disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases, fewer than 5% of FDA-approved drugs act on SLC transporters. This indicates that the field remains largely untapped and presents significant potential for expansion as drug discovery targets.

Dr. Hitoshi Endo, our founder and now Professor Emeritus at Kyorin University, is a leading authority in transporter research and has discovered and patented twelve novel transporters.
We focus on L-type amino acid transporter 1 (LAT1), one of the SLC transporters discovered by our founder, and is dedicated to developing LAT1 inhibitors that suppress its activity.