With its network of tubes and petri dishes, Hitachi Ltd.'s latest gizmo may look more like a mini laboratory inside a refrigerator than the growth engine the Japanese technology company envisages. Its cabinet-sized stem cell incubator, unveiled in a research center last month, promises to utilize a technique pioneered by Nobel Prize winner Shinya Yamanaka to speed new eye and heart treatments-as well as catapult Tokyo-based Hitachi into the regenerative medicine business. It's one of the latest innovations for the company that has as many patents as General Electric Co. and Siemens AG combined, and which plans to beef up research to spur investor returns that have lagged overseas rivals the past year.
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