ABOUT US

Itsuki Research is a small Tokyo based R&D business where ideas turn into products. We focus on products which make life easier and safer. Itsuki was founded by a researcher and an engineer. We met in a research lab working for the Japanese government (RIKEN) and spent most of our careers in research, collecting data, understanding and solving problems. The core of our team came from Europe.

THE INITIAL PROBLEM: ODORS AND MOLD

Moving to Japan required that we adapt to a new way of life, and a new climate: Japan is a very humid country and here mold is a common problem.

When germs and mold spread they can damage interiors or cause odors and health problems. Examples of troublesome areas familiar to most people are bathrooms, window frames and dark humid corners of rooms with bad ventilation.

Once mold settles in, you keep cleaning, but molds come back every time.

THE BIRTH OF OUR TECHNOLOGY

Some specific high energy visible light were well known in science to be effective in deactivating (killing) bacteria (also responsible for odors), fungi and mold. We started to develop a lighting technology that offered a natural method to sanitize inside our home. We wanted to use such lights at all times, without limiting the presence of people during their use, and without disrupting the quality of white light already installed. We found a solution to these problems that was improving the previous well known high energy visible light, and we patented a method to obtain high quality white lights with germicidal characteristics. We named this solution PurpleBlueTM lighting technology.

CERTIFIED TECHNOLOGY

During our product development scientific studies started to indicate that specific high energy visible light could work against viruses too. We knew that COVID-19 was spreading mostly with micro droplets that are expelled when people talk or sneeze (as well as every airborne disease). At that point it was crucial to test the potential effect of our lights against COVID-19 when it was suspended in air. Thanks to our science background and network, we could find Virostatics, an Italian American laboratory that was able to combine our unique requirements, and they were able to conduct a series of experiments that eventually demonstrated that our technology is effective in deactivating SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19).