[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 185 (Monday, November 13, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1559]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO DR. TAKASHI KITAMURA

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                       HON. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON

                                of texas

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 13, 2017

  Ms. EDDIE BERNICE JOHNSON of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize 
Dr. Takashi Kitamura, assistant professor in the Department of 
Psychiatry at the University of Texas Southwestern. On November 12, 
2017, Dr. Kitamura received the Peter and Patricia Gruber International 
Research Award, from the Society for Neuroscience. Supported by The 
Gruber Foundation, the award recognizes young neuroscientists for 
outstanding research and educational pursuit in an international 
setting.
  Dr. Kitamura has made three major contributions in his career to 
date. First, he demonstrated that there are two types of excitatory 
neurons in layer II of the entorhinal cortex, ``island cells'' and 
``ocean cells,'' both of which he named, and that pyramidal island 
neurons cluster in a series of bulblike structures while stellate ocean 
cells surround the structures. Second, in collaboration with another 
graduate student, he determined the function of each cell type, 
revealing island cells to control timing and navigation and ocean cells 
to encode static location. Third, he identified engrams and circuits 
crucial for systems consolidation of memory, which leads to the 
formation of long-term memories in the neocortex.
  Dr. Takashi Kitamura earned his doctorate in biology at Kyushu 
University in Japan. His thesis, ``Molecular Mechanisms of Adult 
Hippocampal Neurogenesis,'' sought to identify the role of entorhinal 
hippocampal neuronal circuits in the formation of episodic memory and 
revealed important insight that formed the basis for his postdoctoral 
research at the Mitsubishi-Kaguku Institute as well as further research 
at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology.
  Dr. Kitamura's work is significant because it contributes 
significantly to the federally-funded research investment in my 
congressional district.
  Mr. Speaker, I know my colleagues will join me in congratulating Dr. 
Kitamura. With distinguished academicians work like Dr. Kitamura, we 
will have better understanding of cognitive impairments and Alzheimer's 
disease.

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