Education and research history

• 1984–1990 MD, Kyoto University
  Kyoto University
  , or is a national university located in Kyoto, Japan. It is the second oldest Japanese university, and formerly one of Japan's Imperial Universities.- History :...
  
   Faculty of Medicine
• 1990–1994 PhD, Institute for Immunology and Department of Pharmacology, Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine
• 1994–1996 Postdoctral Fellow, Department of Neurophysiology, Institute for Brain Research, Faculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo
  University of Tokyo
  , abbreviated as , is a major research university located in Tokyo, Japan. The University has 10 faculties with a total of around 30,000 students, 2,100 of whom are foreign. Its five campuses are in Hongō, Komaba, Kashiwa, Shirokane and Nakano. It is considered to be the most prestigious university...
  
  
• 1996–2000 Postdoctral Fellow, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
  Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
  The Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory is a private, non-profit institution with research programs focusing on cancer, neurobiology, plant genetics, genomics and bioinformatics. The Laboratory has a broad educational mission, including the recently established Watson School of Biological Sciences. It...
  
  
• 2000–2009 Assistant Professor (joint), RIKEN
  RIKEN
  is a large natural sciences research institute in Japan. Founded in 1917, it now has approximately 3000 scientists on seven campuses across Japan, the main one in Wako, just outside Tokyo...
  
  -MIT Neuroscience Research Center, The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
  Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
  The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory is, along with the McGovern Institute for Brain Research and the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, one of the three neuroscience groups at MIT...
  
  , Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
  
  
• 2000–2004 Senior Scientist (joint), Brain Science Institute, RIKEN
• 2004–2009 Unit Leader (joint), Brain Science Institute, RIKEN
• 2009 – current Team Leader, Brain Science Institute, RIKEN

Past accomplishments

• Regulation of adrenal tyrosine hydroxylase
  Tyrosine hydroxylase
  Tyrosine hydroxylase or tyrosine 3-monooxygenase is the enzyme responsible for catalyzing the conversion of the amino acid L-tyrosine to dihydroxyphenylalanine . It does so using tetrahydrobiopterin as a coenzyme. DOPA is a precursor for dopamine, which, in turn, is a precursor for norepinephrine ...
  
   under hypoxic condition
• Cloning and functional analysis of prostanoid
  Prostanoid
  Prostanoid is the term used to describe a subclass of eicosanoids consisting of: the prostaglandins , the thromboxanes and the prostacyclins - Biosynthesis : Cyclooxygenase catalyzes the conversion of the free essential fatty acids to...
  
   receptor
  Receptor (biochemistry)
  In biochemistry, a receptor is a molecule found on the surface of a cell, which receives specific chemical signals from neighbouring cells or the wider environment within an organism...
  
  
• Pharmacological analyses of metabotropic glutamate receptor
  Metabotropic glutamate receptor
  The metabotropic glutamate receptors, or mGluRs, are a type of glutamate receptor that are active through an indirect metabotropic process. They are members of the group C family of G-protein-coupled receptors, or GPCRs...
  
  
• Activity dependent trafficking of AMPA type glutamate receptor
  Glutamate receptor
  Glutamate receptors are synaptic receptors located primarily on the membranes of neuronal cells. Glutamate is one of the 20 amino acids used to assemble proteins and as a result is abundant in many areas of the body, but it also functions as a neurotransmitter and is particularly abundant in the...
  
   as a mechanism of hippocampal
  Hippocampus
  The hippocampus is a major component of the brains of humans and other vertebrates. It belongs to the limbic system and plays important roles in the consolidation of information from short-term memory to long-term memory and spatial navigation. Humans and other mammals have two hippocampi, one in...
  
   LTP
  LTP
  - Science and technology :* Lunar Transient Phenomena, a short-lived change in appearance of Earth's moon* Long-tailed pair, a differential pair amplifier* Lightweight Telephony Protocol, a signaling protocol...
  
  
• Structural plasticity of dendritic spine and its molecular mechanisms
• Molecular cloning and analysis of motoneuron specific NMDA receptor
  NMDA receptor
  The NMDA receptor , a glutamate receptor, is the predominant molecular device for controlling synaptic plasticity and memory function....
  
   subtype NR3B
  GRIN3B
  Glutamate [NMDA] receptor subunit 3B is a protein that in humans is encoded by the GRIN3B gene....
  
  
• Retrograde regulation of synaptic release probability by cell adhesion molecules
• Structural elucidation of high-order structure of postsynaptic density
  Postsynaptic density
  The postsynaptic density is a protein dense specialization attached to the postsynaptic membrane. PSDs were originally identified by electron microscopy as an electron-dense region at the membrane of a postsynaptic neuron...
  
  

Awards and honors

• 1998 Young Investigator Award from Japanese Pharmacological Society
• 2008 JSPS Prize for Young Investigators
• 2008 Japan Academy Medal

External links

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory
• RIKEN
• RIKEN Brain Science Institute
• Laboratory Webpage