Members
9th
Term: Oct. 2018 ～
The following 13 researchers are working at the Hakubi Center for Advanced Research, Kyoto University.
:Global Type
:Tenure-track Type
● Yukinori HIRANO Associate Professor
Research Interests: Molecular neuroscience
Research Topic: Investigating memory supporting the workings of the mind, from the viewpoint of the chromatin
Short Introduction
Our daily life cannot be maintained without memory in the brain, which has been obtained through the entire life. The memory disorder, such as in Alzheimer’s disease, therefore significantly decreases the quality of life, elevating the social needs for understanding the molecular mechanism of memory. For such memory to be long-lasting (long-term memory, LTM), de novo gene expression mediated by the chromatin modification is essential. However, the brain does not always trigger this molecular mechanism for all experiences, but selectively do so when the information is worth storing as memory. Therefore, not the simple neural activity, but activity of the computational network must be important to execute the chromatin modification for memory. The central question is at where and how the neural computation takes place and launches the gene expression required for LTM. To gain insight into these issues, I have utilized and will be working on the fruit fly Drosophila, which allows us to conduct comprehensive genetic screening and manipulate the neural circuits at the level of the single-neuron. This study will contribute for understanding of the neural computation-based chromatin regulation in memory, which may eventually contribute to education, therapy, and even normal human life.
Research activity status (external page)
Latest News
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Aug. 2, 2019
Associate Professor Yukinori HIRANO (Graduate School of Medicine) published a paper in PNAS.
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Dec. 25, 2018
Hakubi Seminar Announcement (159th meeting)
