A photo of Takuji Suzuki.

Takuji Suzuki, MD, PhD

  • Member, Translational Pulmonary Science Center, Division of Pulmonary Biology
  • Assistant Professor, UC Department of Pediatrics

About

Biography

I'm a physician-scientist researching innate lung immunity, macrophage biology, interstitial lung diseases, pulmonary alveolar proteinosis and rare lung diseases. The goal of my lab is to develop a novel cell and gene therapy for the treatment of lung diseases, especially for hereditary pulmonary alveolar proteinosis.

During my clinical experiences caring for patients with severe lung diseases, I became interested in pulmonary research. Some of my lab's groundbreaking work includes identifying
and characterizing the clinical presentation, pathogenesis, diagnosis and therapy of hereditary pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (hPAP). We also established induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells from hPAP patients and developed a novel cell and gene therapy, pulmonary macrophage transplantation (PMT) therapy in mice.

I am honored to have received these awards:

  • American Thoracic Society (ATS) Travel Award (2011)
  • Annual American Thoracic Society (ATS) Assembly on Pediatrics Scientific Abstract Award (2012)
  • ATS Neonatal and Developing Lung Interest Group (NDLIG) Award (2016)
  • Japanese Respiratory Society (JRS) Kumagai Award (2019)

I have been a researcher for more than 26 years and began my work at Cincinnati Children's in 2005. My work is published in many well-respected journals, including Nature, The New England Journal of Medicine, The Journal of Experimental Medicine, Blood, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, The European Respiratory Journal, Journal
of Immunology, American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, Molecular Therapy, Nature Communications, Stem Cell Reports, Haematologica and Scientific Reports.

MD: Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan.

PhD: Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Sendai, Japan.

Residency: St. Luke's International Hospital, Tokyo, Japan.

Clinical Fellowship: Tohoku University Hospital, Sendai, Japan.

Research Fellowship: Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH.

Interests

Lung innate immunity; macrophage biology

Research Areas

Pulmonary Biology

Publications

Effective hematopoietic stem cell-based gene therapy in a murine model of hereditary pulmonary alveolar proteinosis. Hetzel, M; Lopez-Rodriguez, E; Mucci, A; Ha Nguyen, AH; Suzuki, T; Shima, K; Buchegger, T; Dettmer, S; Rodt, T; Bankstahl, JP; et al. Haematologica. 2020; 105:1147-1157.

Increased Pulmonary GM-CSF Causes Alveolar Macrophage Accumulation. Mechanistic Implications for Desquamative Interstitial Pneumonitis. Suzuki, T; McCarthy, C; Carey, BC; Borchers, M; Beck, D; Wikenheiser-Brokamp, KA; Black, D; Chalk, C; Trapnell, BC. American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology. 2020; 62:87-94.

Long-Term Safety and Efficacy of Gene-Pulmonary Macrophage Transplantation Therapy of PAP in Csf2ra-/- Mice. Arumugam, P; Suzuki, T; Shima, K; McCarthy, C; Sallese, A; Wessendarp, M; Ma, Y; Meyer, J; Black, D; Chalk, C; et al. Molecular Therapy. 2019; 27:1597-1611.

Statin as a novel pharmacotherapy of pulmonary alveolar proteinosis. McCarthy, C; Lee, E; Bridges, JP; Sallese, A; Suzuki, T; Woods, JC; Bartholmai, BJ; Wang, T; Chalk, C; Carey, BC; et al. Nature Communications. 2018; 9.

iPSC-Derived Macrophages Effectively Treat Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis in Csf2rb-Deficient Mice. Mucci, A; Lopez-Rodriguez, E; Hetzel, M; Liu, S; Suzuki, T; Happle, C; Ackermann, M; Kempf, H; Hillje, R; Kunkiel, J; et al. Stem Cell Reports. 2018; 11:696-710.

Pulmonary Transplantation of Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cell-derived Macrophages Ameliorates Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis. Happle, C; Lachmann, N; Ackermann, M; Mirenska, A; Gohring, G; Thomay, K; Mucci, A; Hetzel, M; Glomb, T; Suzuki, T; et al. American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. 2018; 198:350-360.

IFN-β Improves Sepsis-related Alveolar Macrophage Dysfunction and Postseptic Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome-related Mortality. Hiruma, T; Tsuyuzaki, H; Uchida, K; Trapnell, BC; Yamamura, Y; Kusakabe, Y; Totsu, T; Suzuki, T; Morita, S; Doi, K; et al. American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology. 2018; 59:45-55.

Targeting cholesterol homeostasis in lung diseases. Sallese, A; Suzuki, T; McCarthy, C; Bridges, J; Filuta, A; Arumugam, P; Shima, K; Ma, Y; Wessendarp, M; Black, D; et al. Scientific Reports. 2017; 7.

Function and Safety of Lentivirus-Mediated Gene Transfer for CSF2RA-Deficiency. Hetzel, M; Suzuki, T; Hashtchin, AR; Arumugam, P; Carey, B; Schwabbauer, M; Kuhn, A; Meyer, J; Schambach, A; Van Der Loo, J; et al. Human gene therapy methods. 2017; 28:318-329.

Inhibition of IRAK1 Ubiquitination Determines Glucocorticoid Sensitivity for TLR9-Induced Inflammation in Macrophages. Kong, F; Liu, Z; Jain, VG; Shima, K; Suzuki, T; Muglia, LJ; Starczynowski, DT; Pasare, C; Bhattacharyya, S. Journal of Immunology. 2017; 199:3654-3667.