Journal of Clinical and Experimental Ophthalmology
Open Access

Tsutomu Yasukawa

Biography

Tsutomu Yasukawa is Associate Professor of Ophthalmology and Visual Science at Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences in Japan. He graduated from Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan in 1993. He was a research fellow in Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany in 2000–2002 as a scholar of Alexander Humboldt Foundation. He is an expert in drug delivery systems to the posterior segments of the eye. His group has introduced a variety of intraocular drug delivery systems involving: (1) controlled release systems using biodegradable or non-degradable intraocular implants, microspheres, or gelatin hydrogel: and (2) drug targeting using drug conjugated with water-soluble polymers or antibodies. Some of these strategies are currently under clinical trial in the treatment of uveitis, macular edema, or age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Since being in Germany, he has been interested in biogenesis of drusen in aging eyes and the pathogenesis of AMD. He reported a novel rabbit AMD model, demonstrating a possible role of lipofuscin in the pathogenesis of AMD and a novel 3D-spheroid culture of retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells, which enhances differentiation as an epithelium and may be beneficial to elucidate unknown roles of RPE cells in lipid metabolism and maintenance of Bruch's membrane and pathogenesis of RPE-related diseases such as AMD and Best disease.

Research Interest

Neovascular age-related macular degeneration

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