From researching brain-computer interfaces to studying the origin of life and developing new AI-powered services, this year’s listees are charting new territories in healthcare and science.

Hikari Okita’s interest in science was first sparked by her need to wear glasses for near-sightedness during elementary school. It led her to undergrad studies in applied chemistry and biochemical engineering, then researching genetic materials in graduate school and eventually into academia. “Finding the origins of life, something I couldn’t do if I researched cures for diseases at a pharmaceutical company, I thought would make my life more colorful,” she says.

Okita is one of 18 scientists and researchers who made this year’s Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia: Healthcare & Science list, representing a new generation of bright minds who are on the cusp of scientific breakthroughs and discoveries at home and abroad.

After earning a Ph.D. in biomolecular engineering from Nagoya University last year, Okita joined the Institute of Science Tokyo, where she is researching the potential of xeno-nucleic acid (XNA), a more durable version of DNA and RNA but with similar genetic storage capabilities. XNA could help in developing artificial life and determining its origins, going back as many as “four billion years,” according to Okita. It also has the potential to transform drug discovery and delivery and medical diagnostics as it is more resistant than DNA and RNA, for example, to being broken down by the body’s enzymes.

Finding the origins of life, something I couldn’t do if I researched cures for diseases at a pharmaceutical company, I thought would make my life more colorful. Hikari Okita, assistant professor at Institute of Science Tokyo

Finding the origins of life, something I couldn’t do if I researched cures for diseases at a pharmaceutical company, I thought would make my life more colorful.

Okita’s research efforts........

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