Legacy Research Institute

Kazuhiro Kurokawa, Ph.D.

Assistant Scientist
Devers Eye Institute, Discoveries in Sight Research Laboratories

Email: kkurokawa@deverseye.org

Peer Reviewed Publications
Discoveries in Sight Laboratories  |  Devers Eye Institute
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0494-0537

Short Bio:

Dr. Kazuhiro Kurokawa is an assistant scientist at Discoveries in Sight Research Laboratories of the Devers Eye Institute. He received his Ph.D. in engineering from the University of Tsukuba, Japan, working under Dr. Yoshiaki Yasuno, and then did his postdoctoral work in the laboratory of Dr. Donald T. Miller at Indiana University School of Optometry. He played a significant role in advancing high-resolution retinal imaging technology and made both scientific and technical contributions through publications and presentations. His achievement is also recognized by receiving the Pascal Rol Award in both 2009 and 2018, which is given to the best presentation at the leading international conference on ophthalmic technology, hosted by SPIE.             

Dr. Kurokawa has over 10 years’ experience as an optical engineer, especially for ophthalmic imaging technologies: optical coherence tomography (OCT) and adaptive optics (AO). His research primarily focuses on improving the capability of such imaging systems for visualizing and quantifying structure and function of individual cells in the living eye. This work involves various research areas, such as optical engineering, ophthalmic technology, biomedical optics, vision science, and clinical research.

Publication Highlights:

Multifunctional adaptive optics optical coherence tomography allows cellular scale reflectometry, polarimetry, and angiography in the living human eye.
Kurokawa K, Nemeth M.
Biomed Opt Express. 2024 Jan 31;15(2):1331-1354.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38404344/

Multi-reference global registration of individual A-lines in adaptive optics optical coherence tomography retinal images.
K. Kurokawa, J. A. Crowell, N. Do, J. J. Lee, and D. T. Miller.  J Biomed Opt. 26, 016001 (2021).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33410310/

Cellular-Scale Imaging of Transparent Retinal Structures and Processes Using Adaptive Optics Optical Coherence Tomography.
D. T. Miller and K. Kurokawa,
Annual Review of Vision Science. 6, 115–148 (2020).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32609578/

Suite of methods for assessing inner retinal temporal dynamics across spatial and temporal scales in the living human eye.
K. Kurokawa, J. A. Crowell, F. Zhang, and D. T. Miller
Neurophotonics. 7, 015013 (2020).
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32206680/

Research Interests:

• High-resolution retinal imaging
• Image processing and data analysis
• Early detection and prevention of eye disease

Research Focus:

Dr. Kurokawa’s long-term goal is to improve eye-imaging technology, which in turn will lead to better clinical outcomes in treating eye disease.

His research will focus on building a versatile high-resolution retinal imaging system based on adaptive optics optical coherence tomography (AO-OCT). AO-OCT is one of the most powerful research-grade imaging systems to visualize fine cellular details at any depth in the retina and detect cellular dynamics (Miller & Kurokawa, Annu Rev Vis Sci 6, 115-148 (2020)). The image quality and amount of information provided by this state-of-art AO-OCT far exceeds current clinical instruments. To further innovate, he will add additional functionalities to AO-OCT. Multi-functionalities will expand research capability to study various metrics susceptible to disease onset, such as cellular and subcellular dynamics, capillary blood flow, cellular and subcellular biomechanics, and polarization contrast at the cellular level.

Dr. Kurokawa’s unique and specialized skills in retinal imaging will contribute much to the Devers’ research and clinical teams to better define disease onset and retinal health.