Miwako Ishido

EY Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ Asia-Pacific Class of 2023
President and CEO, AutoPhagyGO Inc., Japan

Miwako Ishido is the President and CEO of AutoPhagyGO, a Japanese company that offers services to measure autophagic activities of various materials for the prevention and treatment of aging-related symptoms and diseases, including neurodegenerative diseases. AutoPhagyGO supports material development in the food and cosmetics industries by measuring cellular autophagy activity, which is closely related to aging.

Miwako was asked by one of her professors to help him launch a startup company, which was the starting point in her entrepreneurial trajectory. AutoPhagyGO was founded in 2019. She was appointed as the COO of the company, and since June 2020, she has been the President and CEO of AutoPhagyGO.

Miwako aims to expand the contract research business by utilizing autophagy activity measurement technology across the globe. She also envisions the company discovering original materials that make use of measurement technology and the commercialization of them.

Miwako graduated from the University of Tokyo Faculty of Science and Kyoto University Graduate School. After working as a postdoctoral fellow at Scripps Research Institute and Chief Researcher at R&R, she was engaged in marketing and medical affairs at global pharmaceutical companies, such as Janssen Pharma and AbbVie. Miwako is a finalist of EY Winning Women 2021 and the recipient of the Real Tech Fund Award at the Biotech Grand Prix 2021.