Yutaka Maeda, DVM, PhD

As a research scientist, my interests include lung biology and diseases of the lung. The goals of my lab are to determine the mechanisms of lung diseases and to identify therapeutics to treat lung disease.

My education in veterinary school led to my interest in research. It helped me realize that to discover therapies for lung disease, I first needed to understand basic lung biology. I’m dedicated to this study and hope to discover therapies for lung diseases that have no known treatments.

One of my discoveries is identifying the roles of lung transcription factors that regulate the production of mucus, contributing to the severity of asthma, cystic fibrosis (CF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) and lung cancer. This discovery led to the identification of potential therapeutic targets to control hyper-secreting mucus and lung tumor growth.

I have more than16 years of research experience and started working at Cincinnati Children’s in 2004. My research has been published in various respected journals, including Oncogene, EMBO Molecular Medicine, Journal of Clinical Investigation and American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.