Bruce Morimoto
head drug dev 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 discussing whether alternative receptor targets such as CD98, IGF1R and peptide ligands can deliver improved CNS selectivity
- Comparing emerging delivery modalities including antibody shuttles, peptide-mediated carriers, lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), viral vectors and other non-viral platforms, evaluating their ability to improve biodistribution, intracellular uptake, manufacturability and clinical translation
- Exploring both physical and non-physical approaches to overcoming the blood-brain barrier, including focused ultrasound, microbubble-assisted BBB opening and antibody-mediated modulation, while balancing enhanced CNS penetration with safety, reversibility and translational feasibility
- Debating which delivery strategies are most likely to enable systemic, repeatable and disease-specific oligonucleotide delivery for the next generation of CNS therapeutics
