Dr. Tetsumori Yamashima

Dr. Tetsumori Yamashima

Dr. Tetsumori Yamashima

  • Research Fellow & Group Leader,
    Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science,
    Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medical Science, Kanazawa, Japan.

Dr. Yamashima graduated from Kanazawa University Graduate School of Medicine, and completed his research diploma in 1979. He then studied neuropathology and neuroscience in Germany and Sweden. He became Chief of Consultant Neurosurgeons, Associate Professor, and Director of Restorative Neurosurgery at Kanazawa University Hospital. In 1998, he formulated the “calpain-cathepsin hypothesis” as a mechanism of ischemic neuronal death. In the past decade, he has proposed that the causative agent responsible for Alzheimer’s disease is not amyloid β or phosphorylated Tau, but hydroxynonenal derived from “cooking oil”. So, now he has much interests in ALDH2 which can detoxify hydroxynonenal. After retirement from Kanazawa University, he works at the Arimatsu Medical and Dental Clinic in Kanazawa city as CEO, and investigates toxicity of vegetable oils with young physicians at Kanazawa University, using Japan monkeys. He believes that ALDH2 would be a novel strategy to prevent lifestyle-related diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, type 2 diabetes and nonalcoholic steatohepatitis. He published 200 scientific papers in English, 75 papers and 15 books in Japanese, and two books in Chinese (below). He is now an Editor-in-Chief of ‘J. Alzheimers Disease & Parkinsonism’.