Brief Biography
Dr. Shigeyoshi Itohara received his BSc (1976) and MSc (1978) in veterinary medicine/pathology from Yamaguchi University, and his PhD (1987) from the University of Tokyo for his molecular biologic studies of retroviruses. He performed his postdoctoral work in immunology with Nobel laureate Susumu Tonegawa at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since then, he has used reverse genetics in mice as a core experimental strategy in his studies. When he was appointed Associate Professor at the Virus Research Institute, Kyoto University in 1993, he started his research in neuroscience. In 1997, he was appointed the head of the Laboratory for Behavioral Genetics at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute. His laboratory makes full use of the latest technology in mouse genetics and investigates the development and function of neuronal circuits and neuron-astrocyte interactions in brain function.