Dr. Kato is a hematologist with an active translational research interest in sickle cell disease, especially disorders of the blood vessel wall that may contribute to pulmonary hypertension. He takes care of adults with sickle cell disease, and leads clinical and laboratory bench research to learn the causes of pulmonary hypertension and other forms of vascular dysfunction and to develop new treatments to improve or prevent it. He has a highly collaborative team of clinical and laboratory researchers and a group of motivated, committed patients that enables us to make progress in this research.

Dr. Kato's research specialties have been in blood flow physiology studies, clinical trials and proteomic analysis of plasma to unravel new mechanisms contributing to complications of sickle cell disease and to the development of red blood cells in the bone marrow. He and his team have formulated a model to suggest that pulmonary hypertension, stroke, leg ulcers and priapism share features of vasculopathy and more severe hemolytic anemia, and that pain crisis, acute chest syndrome and avascular necrosis share evidence of poor blood circulation due to viscosity. These two groups overlap and are not completely distinct.

Dr. Kato joined the Vascular Medicine Institute in September 2013.