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Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology Lab
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The lab uses its own original imaging technologies to uncover how synapses work.
AboutAbout the lab
Seeing how synapses work at the nanoscale
The lab studies how synapses, which connect neurons in the brain, work.
It develops its own visualization technologies, including imaging techniques that use light to visualize neurotransmitter release and super-resolution microscopy.
It builds new technologies by combining methods from organic chemistry, chemical biology, molecular biology, and optics.
Using these technologies, the lab investigates how neurotransmitters are released from synapses.
Key terms
- Synapse
- The junction between neurons. Neurons pass signals to each other across it using neurotransmitters.
- Neurotransmitter
- A substance that a neuron releases to send a signal to the next cell. Glutamate is one example.
- Super-resolution microscope
- A microscope that can resolve details finer than the limit of an ordinary optical microscope.
NewsLab news
A student won the Best Poster Prize at WCP2026
A student won the Young Investigator Award at the 153rd Kanto Regional Meeting of the Japanese Pharmacological Society
A student won the Excellent Poster Presentation Award at the 48th Annual Meeting of the Japan Neuroscience Society
A student won the Young Investigator Award at the 152nd Kanto Regional Meeting of the Japanese Pharmacological Society
A project researcher and a student won awards, including the Young Investigator Award, at APPW2025
ResearchResearch themes
The lab focuses on the relationship between nanometer-scale molecular assemblies at synapses and synaptic plasticity, aiming to elucidate how neural circuits operate. Using its own visualization technologies, it tackles the question of how synaptic function is regulated at the nanoscale.
*Illustrative imageNew technologies for visualizing synapses
The lab develops technologies for precisely investigating phenomena that occur at synapses, which are tiny structures. It has successfully developed a fluorescent probe that visualizes glutamate with light, a probe that visualizes the acidic vesicles that enclose neurotransmitters, and an shRNA library that strongly suppresses the activity of targeted genes.
*Illustrative imageHow neurotransmitters are released
At excitatory synapses in the brain, glutamate is released from tiny regions of the presynaptic terminal. Using glutamate imaging, the lab quantitatively analyzes release at a single synapse, making it possible to examine the number of release sites and the release probability.
*Illustrative imageMolecular assemblies that form release sites
Using super-resolution microscopy, the lab observes the arrangement of synaptic molecules at a resolution of 10-20 nm. It found that a single synapse has multiple release sites, and identified them as nano-sized assemblies formed by protein self-assembly.
*Illustrative imageA new approach to super-resolution microscopy
The lab is developing a super-resolution microscope that can analyze the structure of nanometer-scale protein assemblies with high temporal and spatial resolution. It develops the instrument, fluorescent probes, and image analysis methods in collaboration with experts in related fields.
MembersFaculty
Members of the lab include faculty members, project specialists, technical assistants, project researchers, doctoral and master's students, and undergraduate students.As of 2026
- ProfessorKenzo Hirose
- LecturerShigeyuki Namiki
- Assistant ProfessorKenji Takigawa
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “Chemical synapse schema cropped” user:Looie496 created file; Illustrator: Christy Krames, MA, CMI, for US National Institutes of Health, National Institute on Aging / Public domain (cropped)
- New technologies for visualizing synapses: “Cultured Rat Hippocampal Neuron ( )” ZEISS Microscopy from Germany / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- How neurotransmitters are released: “Chem. Synapse scheme” 作者不詳 / Public domain (cropped)
- Molecular assemblies that form release sites: “STED microscopy image of Vimentin with 25nm resolution” Fabian Göttfert, Christian Wurm / CC BY-SA 3.0 (cropped)
- A new approach to super-resolution microscopy: “STED Confocal Comparison 50nm HWFM” Howard Vindin / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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