Kiyomasa Nishii

National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa Saitama, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology,

After graduating from Kyushu University in 1994, Kiyomasa Nishii made several genetically modified mice in the laboratory of Professor Yosaburo Shibata at Kyushu University to study mammalian development and received a PhD in 1999. In 2005, he moved to the laboratory of Professor Shigeo Okabe at Tokyo Medical and Dental University and later to the University of Tokyo to examine the neurobiological findings of the mice he created. Since 2009, he has been studying the axonal projection of mutant retinal ganglion cells together with traumatic brain injuries after exposure to blast-induced shock waves in the laboratory of Professor Yasushi Kobayashi at the National Defense Medical College. Since 2015, he has been an associate professor at the current laboratory. His research focuses on observing fluorescent markers that are expressed or incorporated into living animals at macro to microscopic levels.

Satoko Kawauchi

National Defense Medical College Research Institute, National Defense Medical College, Division of Bioinformation and Therapeutic Systems

Satoko Kawauchi has been an Associate Professor at the Division of Bioinformation and Therapeutic Systems of the National Defense Medical College (NDMC) Research Institute since 2020. She received her BSc and MSc degrees in electrical engineering from Keio University, Japan, in 1996 and 1998, respectively. In her career at NDMC, she received a PhD in Medical Science from Kyorin University in 2005 and a PhD in Engineering from Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in 2019. Her research interests cover a variety of topics in defense medicine applications of lasers and optics, including diffuse optical spectroscopy for central nervous system (CNS) diseases, including traumatic brain injury, photobiomodulation for CNS, optical detection of vision anomaly and loss of consciousness by G-force of fighter pilot, antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, and development of blast injury animal models based on a laser-induced shock wave (LISW).

Shunichi Sato

National Defense Medical College Research Institute, National Defense Medical College, Division of Bioinformation and Therapeutic Systems

Shunichi Sato earned his PhD in electrical engineering from the Keio University. In 1997, he joined the National Defense Medical College Research Institute (NDMCRI) as an Associate Professor and started research and development for medical applications of lasers and optics. Since 2016, he has been a Professor at the Division of Bioinformation and Therapeutic Systems, and since 2021, he has been the Director of the NDMCRI. His current interests cover a variety of topics in defense medicine applications of lasers and optics, including photoacoustic diagnosis of burn injuries, photomechanical drug and gene delivery, antimicrobial photodynamic therapy, photocatalyst-based decontamination, and development of blast injury animal models based on a laser-induced shock wave (LISW). He is the author of more than 400 scientific-technical publications in this field.

Yasushi Kobayashi

National Defense Medical College, Tokorozawa Saitama, Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology

Dr. Yasushi Kobayashi is the Vice President, Dean, and a Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology at the National Defense Medical College. He received a PhD in medicine from the University of Tokyo in 1993 and has been working on the neural connections in the mammalian nervous system, including human and non-human primates. His lab focuses on neuroanatomy from molecular to macroscopic levels: determining localizations of molecular markers, tracing neuronal connections using various tracers, and defining characteristics of the human brain using skulls of extant and fossil species. He is now carrying out research on the effects of blast-induced shock waves on the central nervous system, as well as research on the connections of the limbic cortex, particularly the hippocampal and cingulate cortical areas, which play important roles in spatial cognition and memory.