A paper by Naoko and others has been published in Scientific Reports.
Title: Social rank and social environment combinedly affect REM sleep in mice.
Press Release: Social environment impacts sleep quality
A study in mice demonstrates that one’s position in a social hierarchy and their degree of isolation have a measurable impact on the quality of sleep for individual mice
（The University of Tokyo）https://www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/focus/en/press/z0508_00438.html
Hibiki presented at the 8th Symposium for Ph.D. Program in Humanics, “Interdisciplinary Crossroads – Knowledge Fusion for Breakthroughs” and received the Best Flash Talk Award (December 19th, 2025).
Presentation title: Analyses of REM sleep modulatory system that depends on feeding condition
Congratulations!
Hibiki presented at the 48th Annual Meeting of the Japan neuroscience Society, Training School for Next Generation Scientists, and got Excellence Award.
Presentation title: Discovery and investigation of a REM sleep modulatory system that depends on feeding conditions
Congratulations!
A paper by Yoshifumi has been published in Journal of Neuroscience.
Title: Diverse firing profiles of Crhbp-positive neurons in the dorsal pons suggestive of their pleiotropic roles in REM sleep regulation in mice.
Press Release: Identification of Neurons that Act as a Switch for REM Sleep, a Major Source of Dreams
— Neurons active exclusively during REM sleep revealed after decades of mystery —
（The University of Tokyo）https://www.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/ja/press/10839/
（University of Tsukuba）https://wpi-iiis.tsukuba.ac.jp/japanese/news/4999/
In addition, this paper was selected to be highlighted in the Journal of Neuroscience’s “This Week in the Journal.”:
Exploring Sublaterodorsal Tegmentum Crhbp-Positive Neurons
https://www.jneurosci.org/content/45/28/etwij45282025
Hibiki presented at APPW2025 (The 130th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Anatomists / The 102nd Annual Meeting of the Physiological Society of Japan / The 98th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Pharmacological Society Joint Conference) and received the Graduate Student Presentation Award (March 17-19, 2025).
Presentation title: Analyses of a novel REM sleep regulatory mechanism that depends on feeding conditions
Congratulations!
Ryunosuke presented at APPW2025 (The 130th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Association of Anatomists / The 102nd Annual Meeting of the Physiological Society of Japan / The 98th Annual Meeting of the Japanese Pharmacological Society Joint Conference) and received the Graduate Student Presentation Award (March 17-19, 2025).
Presentation title: Betta fish: a novel vertebrate model for sleep research
Congratulations!
A paper by Mitsuaki and others has been published in Cell (Cell Press).
Title: A pontine-medullary loop crucial for REM sleep and its deficit in Parkinson’s disease.
Press release: Elucidation of the Neural Circuitry Inducing REM Sleep and Identification of the Cause of the “Dream Acting Disorder”
https://www.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/press/10524/
An illustration that symbolizes our findings (by artist Otama-shimai) was selected as the cover image for Cell (October 31, 2024).
Yoshihiko was awarded the Outstanding Poster Presentation Award at the Tsukuba Global Science Week 2024
Yu was selected as a Project Manager for the Moonshot Research and Development Program (Health and Medical Field) (August 31, 2024).
https://www8.cao.go.jp/cstp/english/moonshot/top.html
Kuan (Graduate School of Medical Sciences, University of Tsukuba) received the Dean’s Award for the 2023 academic year!
Presented Paper: Forward genetic screen of Caenorhabditis elegans mutants with impaired sleep reveals a crucial role of neuronal diacylglycerol kinase DGK-1 in regulating sleep
Kuan’s Comment: “I am very happy to have received this award . During this period, I was inexperienced and made many mistakes in experimental design, so it took me a long time to publish my first paper and receive my PhD degree. Nevertheless, this is just a beginning — the experiences in Hayashi lab will definitely be the cornerstone for my next research journey.”
Congratulations to Dr. Chen!