Education

• 2013: Ph.D. in Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan
• 2003: M.D., Faculty of Medicine, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

Professional Experiences

• 2025–Present: Program-Specific Associate Professor, Center for Cancer Immunotherapy and Immunology (CCII), Department of Immune Metabolism; Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine (Concurrent); Department of Immuno-oncology PDT (Concurrent), Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
• 2022-2025: Program-Specific Lecturer, Department of Immuno-oncology PDT (Concurrent), Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
• 2020-2025: Program-Specific Lecturer, Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan
• 2016-2020: Lecturer, Division of Cellular Signaling, Institute for Advanced Medical Research, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
• 2009-2016: Assistant Professor, Division of Cellular Signaling, Institute for Advanced Medical Research, Keio University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan
• 2003-2005: Resident in Internal Medicine, Keio University Hospital, Tokyo, Japan

Research Focus

Although recent cancer immunotherapies including PD-1 blockade have shown durable clinical effects in patients with various cancers, the efficacy is still limited to only a subset of patients. Pre-treatment immune status in tumor microenvironments varies among cancer patients and shows association with their prognoses and responses to various cancer therapies. We have revealed immunological subtypes of various cancers and identified various chemicals and antibodies capable of enhancing anti-tumor immunity using mouse tumor models including newly developed humanized mice. Their targets include other immune checkpoint molecules, oncogenic signals such as β-catenin, lipid metabolism pathways both in cancer cells and immune cells in cancer microenvironments.

Recently, we are using a variety of new technologies such as single cell RNA sequence, metabolite analyses, and spatial protein and gene analyses for the evaluation of immunologic characteristics of various human cancers such as lung cancer, renal cell carcinoma, and gastrointestinal cancer. We also investigate the effect of cellular stress responses in tumor microenvironment on anti-tumor immune responses including T cell memory formation.

Selected Publications

Ito K, Iida K, Hirano T, Leong ML, Morii K, Menju T, Date H, Ozasa H, Yoshida H, Hirai T, Kawashima S, Aoyama K, Saeki Y, Inozume T, Kobayashi T, Chamoto K^#, Yaguchi T^# (^#co-corespondence). Phenotype of circulating tumor-reactive T cells predicts immune checkpoint inhibitor response in non-small cell lung cancer. Nat Commun. (2026). In press, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-69680-x

Yaguchi T, Chamoto K, Honjo T. Age-related immune states and PD-1 blockade: mechanisms and strategies for the elderly. J Immunother Cancer. 13:e013783. (2025). DOI:10.1136/jitc-2025-013783

Ezzaldeen EM*, Yaguchi T*^{, #} (*equally contributed, ^#co-corespondence), Imagawa R, Soltan MA, Hirata A, Murakami K, Tsukamoto H, Muto M, Honjo T, Chamoto K^# Beneficial effects on T cells by photodynamic therapy with talaporfin enhance cancer immunotherapy. Int Immunol. 37 313-324, (2025). DOI: 10.1093/intimm/dxaf003.

Nakamura K*,  Yaguchi T* (*equally contributed),  Murata M, Ota Y, Mikoshiba A, Kiniwa, Okuyama R, Kawakami Y. Tumor eradication by triplet therapy with BRAF inhibitor, TLR 7 agonist, and PD-1 antibody for BRAF-mutated melanoma. Cancer Sci. 115: 2879-2892 (2024) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/cas.16251

Chamoto, K.*, Yaguchi, T.*, Tajima, M.* (*equally contributed), Honjo T. Insights from a 30-year journey: function, regulation and therapeutic modulation of PD1. Nat Rev Immunol (2023). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41577-023-00867-9

Kato, Y., Yaguchi, T.^# (^#co-corespondence), Kubo, A., Iwata, T., Morii, K., Kato, D., Ohta, S., Satomi, R., Yamamoto, Y., Oyamada, Y., Ouchi, K., Takahashi, S., Ishioka, C., Matoba, R., Suematsu, M., Kawakami, Y.^# Inhibition of stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1（SCD1）enhances the antitumor T cell response through regulating β-catenin signaling in cancer cells & ER stress in T cells & synergizes with anti-PD-1 antibody. J Immunother Cancer. 10 e004616 (2022). DOI: 10.1136/jitc-2022-004616

Hayakawa, T., Yaguchi, T.^# (^#co-corespondence), Kawakami, Y.^# Enhanced anti-tumor effects of the PD-1 blockade combined with a highly absorptive form of curcumin targeting STAT3. Cancer sci . 111: 4326-4335 (2020). DOI: 10.1111/cas.14675

Kato, D., Yaguchi, T.^# (^#co-corespondence), Iwata, T., Katoh, Y., Morii, K., Tsubota, K., Takise, Y., Tamiya, M., Kamada, H., Akiba, H., Tsumoto, K., Serada, S., Naka, T., Nishimura, R., Nakagawa, T., Kawakami, Y.^# GPC1 Specific CAR-T Cells Eradicate Established Solid Tumor Without Adverse Effects & Synergize With anti-PD-1 Ab. Elife. 9:e49392 (2020). DOI: 10.7554/eLife.49392

Yaguchi, T.*^{, #} (*equally contributed, ^#co-corespondence), Kobayashi, A.*, Inozume, T., Morii, K., Nagumo, H., Nihio, H., Iwata, T., Ka, Y., Katano, I., Ito, R., Ito, M., Kawakami, Y.^# et al. Human PBMC-transferred murine MHC class I / II-deficient NOG mice enable long-term evaluation of human immune responses. Cell Mol Immunol. 15: 953-962 (2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2017.106

Nakamura, K., Yaguchi, T.^# (^#co-corespondence), Ohmura, G., Kobayashi, A., Kawamura, N., Iwata, T., Kiniwa, Y., Okuyama, R., Kawakami, Y.^# Involvement of local renin-angiotensin system in immunosuppression of tumor microenvironment. Cancer Sci. 109: 54-64 (2018). DOI: 10.1111/cas.13423

Yaguchi, T., Goto, Y., Kido, K., Mochimaru, H., Sakurai, T., Tsukamoto, N., Kudo-Saito, C., Fujita, T., Sumimoto, H., Kawakami, Y. Immune Suppression & Resistance Mediated by Constitutive Activation of Wnt/β-Catenin Signaling in Human Melanoma Cells. J. Immunol . 189: 2110-2117 (2012). DOI: 10.4049/jimmunol.1102282