Mayumi Kimura, Ph.D.

Administrative Director

Project Professor

Think Global, Act Local – to build up interdisciplinarity and transborder approaches requisite for WPI research

Activity Summary

On top of creating an international research environment, one of important missions as a WPI center is the promotion of interdisciplinary and transborder research activities. IRCN is a research institution to find out “What is human intelligence?”. Our intellect seems develop not only by accumulation of academic knowledge, but also its emotional maturity would be added through exposure to a variety of art and culture. For example, to understand a unique Japanese intellect, having international and interdisciplinary background must be helpful. Establishing an individual personality is also very human like, which will be though feasible in future to understand it through computational analyses. Such a novel multidisciplinary challenge is requisite for WPI. “Think global, act local” is a business concept, but it is also applicable among researchers’ community. Isn't it exciting to think, new ideas of human intelligence will be spreading out from the UTokyo Hongo campus to the rest of world? Based on this policy, thinking globally and acting locally, I would dedicate my long-term scientific career to foster the next generation research and leaders.



Major achievements

Karamihalev S, Flachskamm C, Eren N, Kimura M, Chen A. (2019) Social context and dominance status contribute to sleep patterns and quality in groups of freely moving mice. Sci Rep 9:15190.

Gazea M, Patchev AV, Anderzhanova E, Leidmaa E, Pissioti A, Flachskamm C, Almeida OFX, Kimura M. (2018) Restoration of serotonergic homeostasis in the lateral hypothalamus rescues sleep disturbances induced by early-life obesity. J Neurosci 38:441 –451.

Kumar D, Dedic N, Flachskamm C, Voulé S, Deussing JM, Kimura, M. (2015) Cacna1c (Cav1.2) modulates EEG rhythm and REM sleep recovery. Sleep 38:1371-1380.

Jakubcakova V, Flachskamm C, Landgraf R, Kimura, M. (2012) Sleep phenotyping in a mouse model of extreme trait anxiety. PLoS ONE, 7:e40625.

Kimura M, Müller-Preuss P, Lu A, Wiesner E, Flachskamm F, Wurst W, Holsboer F, Deussing JM. (2010) Conditional corticotropin-releasing hormone overexpression in the mouse forebrain enhances rapid eye movement sleep. Mol Psychiatry 15:154-165.

Kimura M, Kodama T, Aguila MC, Zhang SQ, Inoué S. (2000) Granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) modulates rapid eye movement (REM) sleep and non-REM sleep in rats. J Neurosci 20: 5544-5551.

Yu WH, Kimura M, Walczewska A, Karanth S, McCann SM. (1997) Role of leptin in hypothalamic-pituitary function. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 94:1023-1028.

Kimura M, Zhang SQ, Inoué S. (1996) Pregnancy-associated sleep changes in the rat. Am J Physiol 271:R1063-R1069.

Education/Academic background and major awards

Graduated from Kanazawa University (MSc in biology) and completed a Ph.D. in physiology at Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Japan. Mayumi Kimura was formally appointed at the Tokyo Medical and Dental University (1989-2003), The University of Tennessee, Memphis (1990-1993), The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas (1994-1995), Louisiana State University Pennington Biomedical Research Center (1995-1996), and Tulane University School of Medicine (1997-1998). From 2003 till 2018, she was appointed as a Research Group Leader at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry. During the last 35 years, she specialized in pre-clinical/basic sleep research with a focus on the neuro-humoral mechanisms of sleep-wake regulation. She advocated that sleep-wake behavior is under strong homeostatic control via immune challenge induction, gender-specific changes, and stress-driven sleep responses.


Back in Japan since June, 2018, Mayumi has shifted her scientific career from bench to administration. First appointed as Project Associate Professor at International Research Center for Neurointelligence (WPI-IRCN), The University of Tokyo (2018-2020), then as Professor at International Institute for Integrated Sleep Medicine (WPI-IIIS), University of Tsukuba, having served as IIIS Administrative Director (2021- March 2024). Currently, she is back again to WPI-IRCN as Project Professor and a head of management, namely Administrative Director (April, 2024-).


Awards
1999  Promising Scientist Award (the 4th), Society of Japanese Women Scientists
2001  Young Investigator Award (the 6th), Japanese Society of Sleep Research
2002  Biofuture Award, Institute of Biomaterials & Bioengineering, Tokyo Medical & Dental University