Kazushige Touhara

Kazushige Touhara (ja: 東原 和成) is a Japanese biologist, neuroscientist, and a professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan.

After training in the field of organic chemistry,^[1] insect endocrinology,^[2] and GPCR signaling,^[3] he began to establish his team^[4][5] to conducted research on chemoreception.

Just before he was hired as an associate professor at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, University of Tokyo, Nature published an article addressing concerns about the employment of younger researchers at the Graduate School of Frontier Sciences.^[6] Professor Hiroshi Kataoka, an expert in insect endocrinology, supported him.^[7]

He studies a wide range of species, including plants, insects, mammals, and humans. While he has published numerous papers in top-tier journals, his research demonstrating that tears contain pheromones is particularly well-known.^[8]

He serves as the head of the Union of Japanese Societies for Biological Science and is actively involved in initiatives such as advocating for the doubling of Japan's scientific research funding in 2024.^[9] Additionally, he has published several essays focused on enhancing education and scientific research in Japan.^[10][11]

He was well-known as a tennis player at his university during his college years.^[12] It is said that he once aspired to be an actor.^[13]

• 1989 B.Sc. (Department of Agricultural Chemistry, The University of Tokyo, Japan)
• 1993 Ph.D. in Biological Chemistry (Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Stony Brook, U.S.A.)
• 1993.7-1995.9 Post doctoral fellow, Duke University Medical Center
• 1995.10-1998.3 Assistant Professor, The University of Tokyo, School of Medicine, Department of Neurochemistry
• 1998.4-1999.3 Assistant professor, Kobe University, Biosignal Research Center
• 1999.4-2009.11 Associate Professor, The University of Tokyo, Department of Integrated Biosciences
• 2009.12-present Professor, The University of Tokyo, Department of Applied Biological Chemistry

• Discovery that transcriptional regulatory factors are involved in plant chemical sensing.^[14] It is said that this research took nearly 20 years to complete.^[15]

• Detection of olfactory signals using Xenopus oocytes.^[16] This work using a co-receptor homologous to Or83b effectively dispelled the misconception that all olfactory receptors, including those in insects, are GPCRs. In reality, insect olfactory receptors are ion channels, as his team later demonstrated in collaboration with Leslie Vosshall.^[17]
• Detection of taste signals in vitro.^[18] This study demonstrated that reconstruction can be achieved without using a co-receptor.

• Functional characterization of an olfactory receptor.^[19] This work was cited in Richard Axel's Nobel lecture.^[20]
• Functional characterization of an olfactory receptor expressed in tissues other than olfactory neurons.^[21]
• Detection of olfactory signals in vitro.^[22]
• Identification of a natural ligand of an olfactory receptor.^[23]
• Identification of a musk olfactory receptor.^[24]
• Discovery of tears as a pheromone source.^{[25][26][27][28]}
• Discovery of blood as a chemosensory cue.^[29]

• Clarification of the spatiotemporal dynamics of odor representations in the brain.^[30]

• Frank Allison Linville's RH Wright Award in Olfactory Research (2006)
• Japan Academy Medal (2009)
• Kunio Yamazaki Distinguished Lectureship Award (2017)

• Touhara lab (Laboratory of Biological Chemistry, Department of Applied Biological Chemistry, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo)