Pharmacology

The major focus of this laboratory is a disease-oriented basic neuroscience research. Although recent progress in the neuroscience field begins to shed light on complicated interactions between genetic and epi-genetic (environmental) control in the nervous system, fundamental brain functions such as learning/memory, attention, sleep, movement control are largely still enigmatic.

Neurodegenerative diseases are adult-onset and slowly progressive disorders affecting the central and peripheral nervous system. One of the major causes of the diseases is known to be aging. With the growth of elderly population, risks of suffering from these diseases are rapidly increasing and making them heavy social burden.

The main goals of our research are to elucidate physiological and pathological roles of cholinergic neurons in neurologic/psychiatric diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and schizophrenia, and ultimately develop better pharmacological interventions to these devastating conditions.

We are looking forward to working with motivated students who have high interest in basic research for uncovering hidden mysteries of brain functions and their disorders.