Affiliation: ExCELLS and NIPS, National Institutes of Natural Sciences

Takaaki Sokabe received his BS and MS degrees from the Himeji Institute of Technology in 1998 and 2000. He completed his PhD at the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Medicine in 2004. Following his doctorate, he joined the National Institute for Physiological Sciences, where he worked as a research fellow, JSPS postdoctoral fellow, and project assistant professor, focusing on the molecular and physiological functions of thermosensitive TRP channels in mammals. He later moved to Craig Montell’s lab at Johns Hopkins University/University of California, Santa Barbara, to investigate sensory mechanisms using fruit flies as a model organism. Since 2017, he has been an associate professor at the National Institute for Physiological Sciences and the Exploratory Research Center on Life and Living Systems. His current research explores the functional relationships between sensory receptors and membrane lipids, and he is also seeking novel strategies for insect pest management.