Professor Koichiro Asano

Dr. Asano graduated from Keio University School of Medicine in Tokyo, Japan in 1985. After post-doctoral fellowship in Boston, USA (Prof. Jeffrey Drazen), he served as an associate professor in Keio University. He moved to Tokai University School of Medicine, Kanagawa, in 2012, and has been working as Professor of Medicine and Chief in Division of Pulmonary Medicine. His research interests are severe asthma and fungus-associated allergic airway diseases. He has been the principle investigator of Japanese Research Program of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis/mycosis since 2013, and published new diagnostic criteria of this disease (J Allergy Clin Immunol 147: 1261, 2021).

Abstract:

The presence of IgE-mediated type I hypersensitivity to fungi has been emphasized in the diagnosis of allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis (ABPA), whereas recent studies show the importance of mucus plugs in bronchi enriched with eosinophils and their extracellular trap cell death and Charcot-Leiden crystal formation. The role of eosinophils and IgE in the pathogenesis, clinical characteristics, and treatment of ABPA will be discussed in this talk.