髙橋 智幸

京都大学、東京大学、同志社大学を経て、OISTに着任

After training as a medical doctor, Dr. Tomoyuki Takahashi received his Ph. D. degree in Pharmacology from Tokyo Medical & Dental University in 1975 for his pioneering works on substance P as a neurotransmitter in cat spinal cord. In post-doctoral training, he worked with Dr. Ricardo Miledi at the Biophysics Department, University College London, being supervised by Sir Bernard Katz. After returning to Japan, he collaborated with Dr. Shosaku Numa's group at Kyoto University as a lecturer in Dr. Motoy Kuno's laboratory, and contributed to the establishment of the new field, Molecular Neuroscience. During the collaboration, he made friendships with Drs. Bert Sakmann, Erwin Neher and their colleagues, and this led him to develop patch-clamp method in brain slice preparations (Edwards et al. 1989). This method, called "slice-patch-clamp method", has widely been used among neuroscientists. Using this method, Dr. Takahashi and his colleagues have provided fundamental information on brain synaptic functions, such as identification of voltage-gated calcium channel subtypes mediating transmitter release (Takahashi & Momiyama, 1993). After he moved to the University of Tokyo as a professor, he collaborated with Dr. Ian Forsythe to develop a preparation in which one can make patch-clamp recordings from presynaptic and postsynaptic structures simultaneously (Takahashi et al. 1996). This preparation, the calyx of Held synapse in rodents, is now recognized as a gold model of mammalian central synapse, after frog neuromuscular junction and squid giant synapse. Using the calyx of Held synapse, Dr. Takahashi's group unveiled presynaptic mechanisms regulating transmitter release which had never been proved directly. As a leading scientist, Dr. Takahashi named on the editorial board of international journals, such as Science and The Journal of Physiology. After his retirement from the University of Tokyo in 2007, his scientific curiosity led him to continue working in Kyoto (Doshisha University) and thereafter in Okinawa (OIST) from 2015.

髙橋 智幸の写真
髙橋 智幸
教授
東京医科歯科大学(博士(医学)、学士(医学) )
他の教員