Masahiro Sokabe

Professor, Department of Physiology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine

Visiting 1-11 December, 2016

About Masahiro Sokabe

Dr Masahiro Sokabe is Designated/Emeritus Professor and Head of Mechanobiology Lab at Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Japan. After receiving PhD from Osaka University (1984, Biophysical Engineering), he moved to Nagoya University in 1985, promoted to Professor and Chair at the Department of Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine in 1992, and retired in 2013. He has conducted pioneering works on cell mechanosensors, including mechanosensitive ion channels, actin cytoskeletons and focal proteins, and currently focuses on their roles in cell migration, carcinogenesis/metastasis and wound healing. He is also intensively investigating the role of neurosteroids in the plasticity and neurogenesis in the brain, aiming at their clinical applications to stroke and Alzheimer’s disease.

Dr Sokabe has published over 200 papers and contributed to scientific societies through serving as Ex-President of Japanese Biophysical Society and Ex-president of International Association of Comparative Physiology and Biochemistry. He is currently President (2011-)of International Society of Mechanobiology, and Supervisor (2015-) of the grant program “Elucidation of mechanobiological mechanisms and their application to the development of innovative medical instruments and technologies” supported by Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED).

His major research fields are Biophysics: Structure-Function of Ion Channels (Artificial Channels, Mechanosensitive Channels), Cell Physiology:  Mechano-Signaling in Morpogenesis, Migration: (SAChannel, Cytoskeleton, Integrin) and Brain Science:  Neuronal Plasticity (Optical recordings, Hippocampus, Altzheimer’s Disease, Neurosteroids).

Prof Sokabe’s Visit to MBI

Prof Sokabe’s visit in December is partly to discuss with Prof Lim Chwee Teck their continued collaboration and preparation for the 3rd International Symposium for Mechanobiology 2017 at NUS.

Professor Sokabe will present a keynote talk at the 16th International Conference on Biomedical Engineering (ICBME) meeting on 7-10 December, U-TOWN, NUS. Prof Sokabe is co-organizing a symposium with MBI principal investigator, Prof Yusuke Toyama.

Learn more about ICBME.