Hisashi Umemori, MD, Phd.

About Hisashi

Hisashi Umemori’s initial training was as M.D. (University of Tokyo), but early in his clinical career, he decided to devote himself to understanding the basis of the neuropsychiatric diseases that he was unable to treat properly. At the University of Tokyo, he analyzed the molecular mechanisms underlying myelination (Ph.D. work) and synaptic plasticity. These studies kindled his interest in how synapses form in the brain – As a postdoctoral fellow in Joshua Sanes’ lab at Washington University and Harvard University, Dr. Umemori started studying synapse development. He joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 2006 and returned to Harvard University and joined the F.M. Kirby Neurobiology Center at Children’s Hospital in 2013, deciphering the mechanisms underlying the establishment and function of specific and functional synaptic circuits in the mammalian brain.

Dr. Umemori received awards from Klingenstein Fellowship, Robert H. Ebert Clinical Scholar, Mallinckrodt Foundation, March of Dimes Foundation, and Whitehall Foundation.