Investigator Scientist
Dr. Nakamura graduated in biological sciences at Kyoto University, Japan, in 2000. He then studied postnatal development of glutamatergic neuronal circuits under the supervision of Professor Takeshi Kaneko, and obtained his Ph.D. from the Graduate School of Medicine at Kyoto University in 2006. Dr Nakamura then stayed in the same laboratory as a postdoctoral researcher to extend his studies on the postnatal development of the basal ganglia circuits.
Dr. Nakamura joined the Magill Group as a Long-Term Fellow of the Human Frontier Science Program Organization in September 2009. After the completion of his fellowship in September 2012, he continued his study in the unit as an MRC Investigator Scientsit.
Key Research Areas
- Processing of cortically-derived information by the basal ganglia and its behavioural correlates.
- Neuronal circuitry underlying information flow through the basal ganglia during postnatal development and in adulthood.
- Experimental models of Parkinson's disease.
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Parasagittal section of the rat neostriatum at postnatal day 4. The tissue was triple-labelled for tyrosine hydroxylase (TH, green), vesicular glutamate transporter 1 (VGluT1, blue), and VGluT2 (red), markers for the three major afferents to neostriatum. 'Dopamine islands', the areas of intense TH immunoreactivity, often overlap with 'glutamate islands', the areas of intense VGluT1 and VGluT2 immunoreactivities. The three major afferents thus together form 'afferent islands' in the neostriatum of rat pups. For further details, please see Nakamura et al. (2005, 2009).