Bruce Morimoto
Head, Drug Development Fuku Biotech
Dr. Morimoto has over 25 years of industry experience in leading project teams in the development of innovative medicines, providing guidance in the design and execution of nonclinical, clinical and regulatory strategies with a therapeutic focus on CNS indications including Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and frontotemporal dementias. Previously, Bruce held leadership roles at Alto Neuroscience, Cerecin, Alkahest, Celerion and Allon Therapeutics. He is currently consulting with several biotech companies helping to move their programs through clinical development and drug registration. Bruce started his career on the faculty in the Chemistry Department at Purdue University where his independent research focused on neuronal signal transduction. Bruce earned his doctorate in biochemistry from UCLA and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of California Berkeley.
Seminars
- Reassessing the limitations of TfR1-mediated delivery including broad peripheral expression, systemic sink effects, tolerability concerns, and limited cell-type specificity and evaluating whether alternative receptors such as CD98, IGF1R, peptide ligands and LNP-enabled formats can deliver improved CNS selectivity
- Examining emerging BBB access strategies, including receptor alternatives and physical modulation approaches such as antibody-mediated opening or focused ultrasound, while balancing enhanced penetration against the biological risks of barrier disruption
- Exploring LNP strategies for CNS delivery, discussing their capacity to encapsulate and protect oligonucleotides, enhance systemic stability, modulate biodistribution, and potentially enable controlled transport across or around the blood–brain barrier
- Advancing peptide-mediated delivery approaches that utilize small targeting or cell-penetrating peptides to facilitate BBB traversal and intracellular uptake, evaluating their modularity, scalability, and potential advantages over antibody-based shuttle platforms
- Evaluating physical BBB modulation techniques, including focused ultrasound and microbubble-assisted disruption, to transiently increase permeability and enable localized brain access, while critically assessing reversibility, safety margins, spatial precision, and translational feasibility
