Associate Professor Kazuhiro Nakamura of Center for the Promotion of Interdisciplinary Education and Research (C-PiER) was selected as a recipient of the 11th Japan Academy Medal Prize.
This prize is awarded to outstanding young researchers in order to recognize their achievements and to encourage them in their future work. Up to six awardees are selected from among the annual recipients of the JSPS Prize administered by the Japan Society for Promotion of Science.
The award ceremony was held at the Japan Academy in February 2015. Dr Nakamura's achievements thus far include: graduate of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University (1997); Doctorate at the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University (2002); JSPS and Oregon Health and Science University postdoctoral research fellow; Program-Specific Assistant Professor for the Career-Path Promotion Unit for Young Life Scientists of C-PiER; promotion to Senior Lecturer (2013); and then Associate Professor (2014).
The Academy's prize recognizes Dr Nakamura's achievements in research on central nervous system mechanisms controlling temperature homeostasis including body temperature regulation.
For homoiothermal animals including humans, body temperature regulation is an essential biological function to maintain life in varying temperature environments. By combining physiological and anatomical analysis approaches and using them multilaterally, Dr Nakamura has found neural pathways through which information relating to the temperature environment felt on the skin is relayed to the central thermoregulatory system in the brain. This is not about a mechanism through which temperature is felt on a conscious level, but about newly revealed thermosensory pathways that are necessary to maintain the body temperature on a subconscious level.
Furthermore, Dr Nakamura has revealed a neural circuit through which the brain's thermoregulatory system sends signals to the heat-producing peripheral organs to trigger a physiological response for maintaining body temperature. Dr Nakamura has also shown that this neural circuit sends signals to cause fever for biological defense when the body is being infected or psychologically stressed.
These achievements have led to international acclaim, with Dr Nakamura's receiving the 2014 Henry Pickering Bowditch Award of the American Physiological Society, one of the most prestigious awards for emerging researchers. And it is because his achievements are expected to play a significant role in medical research related to searching for cures for obesity, psychogenic fever, and other conditions, Dr Nakamura was selected as a recipient of the 11th Japan Academy Medal Prize.
