Rate My Professor Takashi Kitamura

Takashi Kitamura, Ph.D., is Associate Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neuroscience at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, holding the Southwestern Medical Foundation Scholar in Biomedical Research endowed title. He earned a bachelor's degree in Biology from Kyushu University in Japan in 2002 and a Ph.D. in Biology from the same university in 2007, where his doctoral research examined molecular mechanisms and the functional role of adult hippocampal neurogenesis in rodent brains. After completing his doctorate, Dr. Kitamura conducted postdoctoral research at the Mitsubishi-Kagaku Institute of Life Sciences in Tokyo, followed by an appointment as Assistant Professor at the University of Toyama in Japan. He then served as Research Scientist at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, applying advanced mouse genetics, cell-type specific neural tracing, in vivo calcium imaging, electrophysiology, and optogenetic manipulation to investigate episodic memory formation and storage. In May 2017, he joined the faculty in the Department of Psychiatry at UT Southwestern, advancing to Associate Professor.

The Kitamura Lab provides a biophysically-based mechanistic understanding of neural circuits, processes, and memory engrams for learning and memory, focusing on the entorhinal cortical-hippocampal network in mice. Research employs viral technology, transgenic strategies, histology, in vivo calcium imaging, electrophysiology, cell-type specific manipulation, and behavioral assays. Key areas include cell-type specific neural circuit dissections for learning and memory mechanisms, neural circuit mechanisms for observational learning and prosocial behavior, episodic memory formation and storage, systems consolidation of memory, hippocampal-amygdala memory circuits for experience-dependent observational fear, and neurobiological mechanisms for entorhinal-cortical-hippocampal dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Kitamura has published seminal works such as 'Engrams and circuits crucial for systems consolidation of a memory' (Science, 2017), 'Island cells control temporal association memory' (Science, 2014), 'Adult neurogenesis modulates the hippocampus-dependent period of associative fear memory' (Cell, 2009), 'Visuotactile integration facilitates mirror-induced self-directed behavior through activation of hippocampal neuronal ensembles in mice' (Neuron, 2024), and 'Hippocampal-amygdala memory circuits govern experience-dependent observational fear' (Neuron, 2022). His achievements include the Award for Distinguished Investigator of the Japanese Society for Neurochemistry (2022), HFSP Young Investigator Grant Award (2018), NARSAD Young Investigator Grant Award (2018), UT System Rising STARs Award (2017), and Japan Neuroscience Society Young Investigator Award (2016). He serves as a standing member of the NIH Learning, Memory and Decision Neuroscience Study Section (2023-2027) and Associate Editor for Molecular Brain.