On-Chip Biotechnologies Inc. (Headquarters: Koganei City, Tokyo, President & CEO: Yu Fujimura, hereinafter "the Company") announces its participation in the "Gut Design Co-creation Project JAPAN (abbreviated GDP JAPAN)" hosted by Metagen Inc. (Headquarters: Tsuruoka City, Yamagata Prefecture, President & CEO: Shinji Fukuda). GDP JAPAN is a corporate collaboration community that aims to create a gut design market, bringing together approximately 40 companies from various industries including food, healthcare, and distribution, with the keyword "From Competition to Co-creation." Through its participation in this project, the Company aims to fully deploy its unique droplet technology in the field of gut bacteria research and industrialization. CEO MESSAGE Message from the President & CEO From Equipment Manufacturer to Screening Platform Partner. It is said that less than 1% of the microbial world has been cultured and analyzed by humans. Gut bacteria are the field most directly linked to people's health within this unexplored territory. We have continuously challenged ourselves to "make unculturable and difficult-to-culture microorganisms culturable and usable" with our droplet technology. Together with companies that share our vision gathered at GDP JAPAN, and the host Metagen Inc., we will directly address the challenges in the gut bacteria field. We aim to move beyond simply providing equipment and become a partner that offers a screening platform, contributing to the development of the gut design industry originating from Japan. This is our aspiration. Yu Fujimura, President & CEO, On-Chip Biotechnologies Inc. WHY GDP JAPAN Why the Gut Bacteria Field Now – An Industry-First Challenge Begins Here Breaking Through Research and Industrialization Bottlenecks with Droplet Technology In recent years, rapid advancements in understanding the gut microbiota have led to rapidly growing expectations for industrial applications in various fields such as disease prevention, ext