| | Principal Investigators
| Kazutoshi Nakazawa, M.D., Ph.D. |
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Dr.
Nakazawa is chief of the Unit
on Genetics of Cognition and Behavior in the Mood and
Anxiety Disorder Program, National Institute
of Mental Health, National Institutes of Health. Dr. Nakazawa
received his Ph.D. from Keio University School of Medicine
in Tokyo, Japan, investigating the elucidation of molecular
diversity of glycosyltransferase families. In 1991, he
began post-doctoral training for neuroscience at the Laboratory
for Neural Networks, Frontier Research Programs (later
joined with the Brain Science Institute) in the RIKEN
Institute at Wako, Japan. During this time, his research
focused on the molecular and cellular mechanisms of cerebellar
long-term depression. In 1995 he moved to the Center for
Learning and Memory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) as a research fellow and he became a research associate
in 2000. While at MIT, Dr. Nakazawa developed cell type-restricted
gene manipulation system in hippocampal CA3 by over-expressing
Cre recombinase in transgenic mice. |
| Research Interests |
| The major thrust of Dr. Nakazawa's research is to understand the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying higher cognitive function, such as learning and memory. In particular, his laboratory focuses on elucidating the functional roles of particular brain regions, including hippocampal CA1 and CA3, amygdala, nucleus accumbens, cingulate cortex, and forebrain interneuronal network, in learning and memory. Further, they hope to identify the neural substrates underlying these functions. They believe that the combination of in vivo monitoring of neural activity with behavioral manipulation on learning and memory paradigms is a powerful approach to uncovering neural mechanisms that underlie behavioral phenotypes following conditional genetic manipulation, such as NMDA receptor knockout, genetic protein synthesis-knockdown, and electrical knockout. They are optimistic that some of these approaches will allow them to have mouse models of psychiatric illnesses, such as mood disorders and schizophrenia. The ultimate research goal of the lab is to understand the neural basis of mental states of animals during behavior, such as learning or attention by in vivo monitoring. |
| Representative Selected Recent Publications: |
- Nakazawa, K., McHugh, T.J., Wilson, M.A. and Tonegawa, S.:
NMDA Receptors, Place Cells and Hippocampal Spatial Memory.
Nature Rev. Neurosci. 5, 361-372, 2004.
- Kishimoto, Y., Nakazawa, K., Tonegawa, S., Kirino, Y. and Kano, M.:
Hippocampal CA3 NMDA Receptors Are Crucial for Adaptive Timing of Trace Eyeblink Conditioned Response. Submitted
- Nakazawa, K., Sun, L. D., Quirk, M. C., Rondi-Reig, L., Wilson, M. A., and Tonegawa, S.:
Hippocampal CA3 NMDA receptors are crucial for memory acquisition of one-time experience.
Neuron 38, 305-315, 2003.
- Nakazawa, K., Quirk, M. C., Chitwood, R. A., Watanabe, M., Yeckel, M. F., Sun, L. D., Kato, A., Carr, C. A., Johnston, D., Wilson, M.A., and Tonegawa, S.:
Requirement for hippocampal CA3 NMDA receptors in associative memory recall. Science , 297, 211-218, 2002.
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