Shin Mukai

New Wind Therapeutics L3C, USA

Dr. Shin Mukai is a trailblazing chemical biologist with a wealth of international experience and achievements. He completed his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemistry at Kyoto University. He obtained a Ph.D. in bio-organic chemistry at the University of Western Australia. During his first postdoctoral assignment at the Keio University School of Medicine, he developed a patented treatment of chronic graft-versus-host disease. He then moved to Boston for his second postdoctoral position at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School and worked on macrophage heterogeneity. With his unique blend of expertise in synthetic organic/medicinal chemistry and biology/immunology, he co-founded the oncology pharmaceutical company New Wind Therapeutics L3C in the United States as chief executive officer and chief scientific officer in 2023.

1books edited

3chapters authored

Latest work with IntechOpen by Shin Mukai

Cancer immunotherapy utilizes the immune system to identify and target cancer cells. Over the past decades, researchers have advanced these treatments by (1) uncovering how tumors evade the immune system and (2) developing techniques to trigger an anti-tumor immune response and block tumor immune escape. These immunotherapies can be administered alone or in combination with other treatments, leading to an improved survival rate and quality of life for cancer patients. Indeed, several immunotherapies have received approval from the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the treatment of various cancers. For instance, blocking PD-1/PD-L1 has increased the five-year survival rate for patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer. However, the effectiveness of current immunotherapies varies significantly among patients, and they can cause severe side effects. Although there is still a need for improvement, cancer immunotherapy is regarded as a promising therapeutic modality. This book focuses on the preclinical development and evolving clinical landscape of cancer immunotherapy, encouraging synthetic organic/medicinal chemists, immunologists, and biologists to develop new, safe, and affordable treatments.

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Advances in Cancer Immunotherapy

Edited by Shin Mukai

Chapters authored

Graft-Versus-Host Disease: Pathogenesis and Treatment

By Shin Mukai

Graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) is a disabling complication after allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) and negatively impacts patients’ quality of life. GVHD is classified into 2 forms according to clinical manifestations. Acute GVHD (aGVHD) typically affects the skin, gastrointestinal tract, and liver, whereas chronic GVHD occurs systemically and shows diverse manifestations similar to autoimmune diseases such as eosinophilic fasciitis, scleroderma-like skin disease. GVHD is induced by complicated pathological crosstalk between immune cells of the host and donor and involves various signaling pathways such as purinergic signaling. Although the past several decades have seen significant progress in the understanding of mechanisms of GVHD and several drugs have been approved by FDA for the prevention and treatment of GVHD, there is still vast scope for improvement in the therapy for GVHD. Thus, new drugs for GVHD will need to be developed. Towards this goal, this chapter succinctly summarises the pathogenic process of GVHD and emerging GVHD treatments in order to provide some insights into the mechanisms of GVHD and facilitate the development of novel drugs.

Part of the book: Purinergic System

Therapeutic Approaches Targeting Cancer Stem Cells

By Shin Mukai

Cancer stem cells (CSCs) have been identified in many types of cancer since their discovery in leukemia in the 1990s. CSCs have self-renewal and differentiation capacity, and are thought to be a key driver for the establishment and growth of tumours. Several intracellular signalling pathways are reported to play a significant role in the regulation of the biological activities of CSCs. Thus, many researchers have considered CSCs to be a compelling therapeutic target for cancer, and blockade of CSC-related signalling pathways can be efficacious for the treatment of multiple cancer types. This chapter succinctly summarises the recent progress in the development of treatments targeting signalling pathways related to the functions of CSCs.

Part of the book: Possibilities and Limitations in Current Translational Stem Cell Research

Introductory Chapter: Overview of Cancer Immunotherapy

By Shin Mukai

Part of the book: Advances in Cancer Immunotherapy

Shin Mukai

Latest work with IntechOpen by Shin Mukai

Advances in Cancer Immunotherapy

Chapters authored

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