Rate My Professor Tohru Yamada

Tohru Yamada, PhD, serves as Associate Professor in the Departments of Surgery and Biomedical Engineering in the Colleges of Medicine and Engineering at the University of Illinois Chicago. He is also affiliated with the Department of Pharmacology and Regenerative Medicine in the College of Medicine. Yamada earned his PhD from the Tokyo Institute of Technology. His research centers on translational oncology, with a focus on brain tumors and the discovery and development of peptide-based carriers and anticancer agents derived from bacterial proteins such as azurin and cupredoxins. These agents target cancers through mechanisms involving molecular biology, protein and peptide chemistry, cell biology, and cancer biology, including applications for therapeutic and imaging purposes. Yamada has contributed to the development of the anionic amphipathic cell-penetrating peptide p28, which has advanced through Phase I clinical trials for adult advanced solid tumors and Phase Ia/b trials for pediatric central nervous system tumors, supported by the National Cancer Institute and the Pediatric Brain Tumor Consortium.

Yamada was elected a 2023 Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in recognition of his innovative contributions to cancer therapy and imaging. He maintains an active research program at UIC, including recent collaborations on projects such as mechanisms of breast cancer brain metastasis.