Kazuhiro Ito

WORK HISTORY

EDUCATION

SKILLS

ABOUT KAZUHIRO ITO

I have had a unique career due to my combination of academia, industry and biotech work experiences. My work has ranged from basic/translational/applied molecular and pharmacology science to clinical science in respiratory diseases with a particular focus on respiratory inflammation and infection. After having worked in Sankyo Pharmaceutical Company for 13 years as a leader of allergy disease section, I worked for 15 years in National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College (Prof. P.J.Barnes) as a principle research fellow and reader, and am still serving as honorary professor, specializing epigenetics, steroid resistant mechanism, respiratory virus/bacteria host cell signalling, aging, molecular pharmacology and biomarkers in respiratory inflammatory diseases, such as asthma and COPD. I co-founded RespiVert Ltd (Imperial College spin-off) in 2007, being responsible for discovery/development/clinical biomarkers of novel inhaled kinase inhibitors to treat steroid insensitive chronic inflammatory respiratory disease (this was acquired by Janssen in 2010). Then I co-founded Pulmocide Ltd (http://pulmocide.com/) in 2013, being responsible for discovery and preclinical/clinical development of novel inhaled anti-infective agents for RSV and Aspergillus infection. In 2021, I also co-founded SubIntro Ltd, which was merged with RIGImmune in 2022, and currently a CSO in RIGImmune Inc. I published more than 150 manuscripts/book chapter including NEJM, JEM, ARJCCM and Sci Rep, and one of highly cited researchers in COPD/asthma area. I was also involved in more than 30 patent applications for treatment or respiratory diseases. Because of my work experience, currently I am currently helping open innovation and entrepreneurship in Imperial College and the Institute of Science Tokyo.