NTT Announces Research Applying Genetic Data to Improve Athletic Performance and Health

To provide athletes tools for training, practice and game analysis based on NTT’s IoT, AI and ICT technologies

NTT Corporation (NTT), NTT Life Science Corporation, Juntendo University, along with the soccer team Omiya Ardija and the rugby team Urayasu D-Rocks, have embarked on a joint research project utilizing genetic analysis to develop a project aimed at strengthening athletes and preventing sports injuries.

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Figure 1: Framework for joint research and verification (Graphic: Business Wire)

Through the year-long joint research, researchers aim to create individualized programs based on the results of genetic analysis. NTT Life Sciences ultimately aims to provide services that sustainably support people and organizations involved in sports by providing evidence-based data driven methods that contribute to the improvement of athletes’ performance, prevention of sports injuries and team management.

This joint research will comprehensively analyze the results of genetic analysis related to sports in athletes, supplementing information that teams and individual athletes use, such as the number of steps taken during games and practice, lifestyle habits such as meals, medical examination results, image data for motion analysis, etc. The training programs derived from this analysis will be provided to players and teams and their impact will then be examined (Figure 1).

“There are times when a player of a certain team turns from poor performance to a good performance, and vice versa. This may be because the team's strategy and training methods coincidentally matched or mismatched the player. In order to develop a method that can prevent such a mismatch and maximize the performance of each athlete, we need to examine both environmental factors such as training and nutrition as well as genetic factors,” said Noriyuki Fuku, Senior Associate Professor of Juntendo University Graduate School of Health and Sports Science.

This joint research is aimed at professional sports teams belonging to NTT Group—Omiya Ardija is operated by NTT Sports Community Corporation and the Urayasu D-Rocks is operated by NTT Sports X. In order to expand the results of this joint research, NTT plans to invite participants from sports organizations outside of NTT Group as well as companies with knowledge of diverse analysis methodologies. Additionally, NTT will expand the variety of sports studied and diversify the individualized programs it offers.

NTT Life Sciences will provide individualized programs to athletes using the methods established in this research to improve athletic performance and prevent sports injuries. The results obtained through this joint research will be used not only for top athletes, but also for the sound and effective training methods of young athletes, amateur athletes and safe management of school sports (Figure 2).

About NTT

NTT contributes to a sustainable society through the power of innovation. We are a leading global technology company providing services to consumers and business as a mobile operator, infrastructure, networks, applications, and consulting provider. Our offerings include digital business consulting, managed application services, workplace and cloud solutions, data center and edge computing, all supported by our deep global industry expertise. We are over $95B in revenue and 330,000 employees, with $3.6B in annual R&D investments. Our operations span across 80+ countries and regions, allowing us to serve clients in over 190 of them. We serve over 75% of Fortune Global 100 companies, thousands of other enterprise and government clients and millions of consumers.

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New joint research: How genetic analysis can optimize sports performance and health, from @NTTPR, NTT Life Science Corp., @juntendo_univ, @Ardija_Official and @UrayasuDRocks. #TechForGood