Ogasawara, Hideaki, MD, PhD

Research theme

Molecular mechanisms for synaptic plasticity

The human brain consists of tens of billions of neurons, which are interconnected with and communicate through synapses. The connection can strengthen or weaken so that flow of information is changed according to the environment. This is called 'synaptic plasticity', which many researchers believe to be the cellular substrate for learning and memory. Biochemical reactions that regulate plasticity take place in a minute tructure, synaptic spines, and therefore must be under the large influence of stochastic noise. I have been investigating the molecular network underlying plasticity and the role of stochasticity by performing deterministic and stochastic simulations.

Background

Molecular biology, computer simulation, internal medicine

Previous afiliations

• 2003-2010 ATR Computational Neuroscience Laboratories
• 2005-2010 National Institute of Information and Communications Technology

I have been workinging in industry since May, 2010.

Grant

April, 2009—March, 2010: Grant-in-Aid (Kakenhi) for Young Scientists B #50395133

Project Euler

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