Yuzuru Sasamoto MD, PhD

Ophthalmology
Acting Assistant Professor

Email: ysasamot@uw.edu | Phone: 617.407.1984

Limbal stem cells continuously produce daughter cells to maintain the healthy corneal epithelium. Once the limbal stem cells are damaged or lost, the corneal epithelium cannot be maintained, resulting in the invasion of cloudy conjunctival epithelium. This situation is called limbal stem cell deficiency and patients suffer from severe vision loss. Currently, corneal transplantation is performed to treat the limbal stem cell deficiency. However, there are two major problems with corneal transplantation: (1) relatively high rate of postoperative complications (such as recurrent/persistent epithelial erosion, intraocular pressure elevation, and graft rejection) and (2) worldwide shortage of corneal donors. Our goal is to develop novel therapies for limbal stem cell deficiency to overcome these problems.

We are mainly working on 3 different projects: (1) differentiation mechanisms of corneal epithelium from limbal stem cells, (2) induction of corneal phenotype from conjunctiva, and (3) use of limbal fibroblasts for the treatment of limbal stem cell deficiency. We use human limbal stem cells, mouse limbal stem cell deficiency models, and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to achieve our goal.