I received M.D. in 1982 from Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine and Ph.D. in 1986 from Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine. In my graduate course, I worked on structural characterization and transcriptional control of the renin-angiotensin-kinin system. After postdoctoral training in National Cancer Institute, I became Assistant Professor in 1989 and Associate Professor in 1991 at Kyoto University. There, I started the project of bHLH genes such as Hes1 and Math1 and analyzed their roles in neural development. Then, I moved to Institute for Virus Research, Kyoto University as Full Professor in 1997 and continued to study bHLH genes in neural development including retinogenesis. I also worked on the transcriptional code for neuronal subtype specification. From April 2006 to March 2010, I served as the Director of the institute.

My current research involves studies on dynamics of gene expression during cellular proliferation and differentiation. We developed a time-lapse imaging system for Hes and other gene expression and are characterizing their dynamic expression and its significance in neural development. We are also interested in roles of bHLH genes in adult neurogenesis and characterizing their roles in brain functions.

Dr. Motoyoshi Nomizu received Ph.D. from Kyoto University in 1988. Dr. Nomizu worked as a Research Scientist at Kirin Brewery Co., LTD, Maebashi, Japan from 1985 to 1989. He moved to National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA in 1989 as a Visiting Fellow (NCI/NIH) and then as a Visiting Associate (NIDR/NIH) in 1992. In 1997, he got a permanent position (Research Officer) at BRI/NRC, Montreal, Canada. He backed to Japan as an associate professor at Hokkaido University, Sapporo, Japan in 1998. From 2004 to present, he is a professor at Tokyo University of Pharmacy and Life Sciences, Tokyo, Japan.

Dr. Sakano received his Ph.D. degree in 1976 from Kyoto University under the supervision of Prof. Yoshiro Shimura. For his theses work, Dr. Sakano investigated tRNA processing/splicing by isolating and characterizing the temperature-sensitive mutants of E coli, which were mapped at two different genetic loci. It was later found that one locus codes for RNaseP protein and the other for the RNA component of RNaseP, a ribozyme. This discovery served as a genetic proof for Dr. Altman’s biochemical studies on RNaseP that won him the Nobel Prize in 1989.

Dr. Sakano, then, spent one year and a half as a postdoc with Prof. John Abelson at UCSD studying yeast tRNA splicing. From 1978 to 1981, Dr. Sakano worked with Prof. Susumu Tonegawa on immunoglobulin (Ig) genes to solve the problem of antibody diversity. He published five Nature article papers, providing the evidence for combinatorial and junctional diversification of antibody genes.  

Once independent at UC Berkeley as Assistant Professor of Immunology in 1982, Dr. Sakano continued to work on Ig gene rearrangement and was promoted to Full Professor in 1992. Dr. Sakano relocated to the University of Tokyo in 1996, changing his research field to Neuroscience.  Since then, he has been studying axon wiring and neural map formation in the mouse olfactory system.

Dr. Takumi Takizawa received his Ph.D. degree in 2002 from Gunma University in Japan under the supervision of Prof. Akihiro Morikawa and Tetsuya Taga. For his thesis work, Dr. Takizawa investigated molecular mechanisms underlying astrocyte differentiation from neural stem cells, where he found that a critical role of DNA methylation. Dr. Takizawa, then spent four years (2004-2008) as a post-doctoral fellow with Dr. Tom Misteli at NIH, USA studying spatial gene positioning in neural cells. Then he worked at Nara Institute of Science and Technology (NAIST) in Japan for two years. In 2011, he occupied the current position at Gunma University.