Hikaru Hashitani
Visiting Fellow, Department of Pharmacology
- Head of Department and Professor of Cell Physiology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences
Professor Hikaru Hashitani obtained his medical degree at Kyushu University, Japan in 1991 and undertook clinical training in Urology at Kyushu University Hospital and Spinal Injuries Center. Professor Hashitani completed his PhD in Physiology with Professor Hikaru Suzuki at Nagoya City University in 1997, and developed his career as a research scientist, undertaking postdoctoral research at Melbourne University with Professor David Hirst from 1997 to 1999. After being appointed Assistant Professor at Nagoya City University in 1999, he worked at Pharmacology Department, University of Oxford as a visiting researcher with Professor Alison Brading from 2000 to 2002. He has been the head and professor in Department of Cell Physiology, Nagoya City University Graduate School of Medical Sciences since 2010.
Professor Hashitani’s primary research focus has been the cellular mechanisms underlying the initiation and the propagation of spontaneous electrical and calcium signals in smooth muscle, particularly in the urinary tract. Over the last 15 years, his research interests have extended to the role and neurohumoral modulation of pericytes in generating spontaneous activity in the microvasculature of visceral organs. His research achievements in the field of smooth muscle spontaneous activity can be exemplified by ‘Smooth Muscle Spontaneous Activity: Physiological and Pathological Modulation’, Springer, Eds. Hikaru Hashitani & Richard Lang.