Greetings from the Professor

Greetings from the New Professor

Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University 

As of May 1, 2012, I have been appointed Professor of Biochemistry at the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University. The Laboratory of Biochemistry is a traditional laboratory that has existed since the establishment of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences in 1951. I am the fourth generation in charge of this laboratory, following Professor Akira Minato (the first generation), Professor Seio Hirose, and Professor Hiroshi Kobayashi. I will always strive to live up to the name of this traditional laboratory.

 　After completing the Master's Course in Pharmaceutical Chemistry (Medicinal Chemistry: Takeshi Imanishi Laboratory, now Department of Bioorganic Chemistry) at Osaka University Graduate School, I joined Dainippon Pharmaceutical (now Dainippon Sumitomo Pharma), but my desire to engage in life science research led me to enter the doctoral program in the laboratory of Dr. Toshio Hirano (Faculty of Medicine, now President of Osaka University). There, I studied molecular biology, biochemistry, knockout mouse production, and other life science research methods, and conducted research on signaling proteins involved in immune response and ontogeny. After graduating from the doctoral program, I wanted to further develop the research on signal transduction and ontogeny that I was involved in during my graduate school days, so I focused on zebrafish, which were a new animal model at the time. The zebrafish is an excellent model for novel gene hunting and organogenesis analysis using genetics methods. As a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), I studied transcription factors such as iroquois and Tcf involved in early neurogenesis and Mib ubiquitinase, a novel regulator of Notch signaling, in the zebrafish model. He returned to Japan in 2003. He returned to Japan in 2003 and has been working on the molecular basis of individual organogenesis through the regulation of cell signaling as a specially-appointed associate professor and associate professor at the Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University. At the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University, he has further developed his previous research methods and is currently working on the development of a new approach to the "cell-to-cell signaling" by imaging intra-individual cell migration and cell lineage, measuring high-throughput activity of Notch signaling using mammalian cultured cells, and creating highly active ligand proteins. I would like to conduct integrated research on "physiological function, molecular mechanism analysis, and artificial manipulation" of intercellular signaling.

　After graduating from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, I moved to the Faculty of Medicine and then to the Faculty of Science, returning to the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences for the first time in 20 years. During these 20 years, there have been major changes in the School of Pharmacy, such as the introduction of a six-year program. However, as with the recent iPS cell revolution, basic research in the life sciences is becoming increasingly important. The responsibility of the Biochemistry Laboratory is to nurture life science and pharmaceutical researchers who will be active not only in Japan but also in the world, and we will continue to pursue research and education toward this goal.

Adult zebrafish (about 3 cm) and 1-day post-fertilization embryo (about 1 mm) 

Motoyuki Ito

Brief personal history

May 2012- Present Professor, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Chiba University

April 2011-May 2012) ssociate Professor, Department of Life Science, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University 

Nov 2006-Mar 2011 Specially Appointed Associate Professor, School of Advanced Studies, Nagoya University

July 2003-October 2006 Specially Appointed Associate Professor, COE, Graduate School of Science, Nagoya University

Apr 1999-Jun 2003 Research Fellow, NIH, U.S.A.

Apr 1996-Mar 1999 Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, DC2, Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine

April 1994-March 1998 Doctor of Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University

Nov 1993-Mar 1994 Research Student, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University

Apr 1993-Oct 1993 Research Fellow, Dainippon Pharmaceutical

Apr 1991-Mar 1993 Master of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University

April 1987-March 1991 Undergraduate Student, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Osaka University

Mar 1987 Graduated from Nara Gakuen High School

Academic Affiliations

The Molecular Biology Society of Japan

The Japanese Society for Developmental Biology

The Pharmaceutical Society of Japan

International Society for Developmental Biology

American Academy of Neurology