School of Pharmacy

Give
Resources
Masahiro Sakagami, Ph.D.
Graduate Program Director
Professor
Department of Pharmaceutics
Faculty/Staff picture
  •   Smith Building, Room 454E
  • School of Pharmacy - Dept of Pharmaceutics
    410 N 12th Street
     Box 980533
     Richmond, VA 23298-0533
  •  (804) 828-2014
    (804) 828-8359
  •  msakagam@vcu.edu

Education

  • Ph.D., Pharmaceutical Sciences (Virginia Commonwealth University, 2000)
  • M.S., Chemical Engineering (Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, 1991)
  • B.S., Chemical Engineeering (Waseda University in Tokyo, Japan, 1989)

Professional Experience

  • (2011 - Present) Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics
  • (2000 - 2011) Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmaceutics

Professional and Scholarly Interests

  • Solute and fluid disposition (absorption, metabolism and clearance) in the lung
  • Alveolar transporters and metabolic enzymes for macromolecular proteins and peptides along with epithelial tight junctions and mucociliary clearance

Research Interests

  • Dr. Sakagami's research focuses on pulmonary biopharmaceutics. Despite the potential advantages of respiratory drug delivery as a route of administration, our knowledge associated with pulmonary biopharmaceutics and pharmacology is still limited. Our group has developed and employed several in vivo and in vitro lung systems to characterize pulmonary disposition (absorption, metabolism and clearance) of solutes and fluid, and to assess therapeutic potential of new molecular entities for inhalation. Currently, the research is focused on corticosteroids, therapeutic macromolecular peptides, proteins and antibodies for inhalation in the treatment of asthma, emphysema and certain systemic diseases. These studies will provide valuable information on understanding pulmonary biopharmaceutics and pharmacology for inhaled therapeutics.

Publications

Books/Book Chapters

  • Gumbleton, M, Morris, CJ, Francombe, D, Sakagami, M: “Drug Transport Processes of the Air-Blood Barrier”. In: Pulmonary Drug Delivery, Bechtold-Peters K, Luessen H (Eds.), Editor Cantor Verlag Aulendolf (Germany), ISBN 978-3-87193-322-6, pp 332-353, 2007.

Recent Publications

  • Sakagami M and Nadkarni PN: “Beyond Insulin: the Shrinking Pulmonary Delivery Window for Isystemic Biotech Drugs”, Proceedings of Respiratory Drug Delivery 2010, Davis Healthcare International Publishing, LLC, River Grove, IL, Vol I: 31-38, 2010.
  • Arora D, Shah KA, Halquist MS and Sakagami M: “In Vitro Aqueous Fluid-Capacity-Limited Dissolution Testing of Respirable Aerosol Drug Particles Generated from Inhaler Products”, Pharmaceutical Research, 27: 786-795, 2010.
  • Kamiya A, Sakagami M and Byron PR: “Cascade Impactor Practice for a High Dose Powder Inhaler at 90 l/min: NGI vs. Modified 6-stage and 8-stage ACI”, Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 98: 1028-1039, 2009.