Speaker Profile

Executive Summary：
He is an honorary professor at Jichi Medical University (JMU) in Japan. He received his M.D. and Ph.D. from JMU. He completed his neurology residency at Gunma University and JMU. He was a visiting associate at the National Institutes of Health in the USA from 1995 to 1997. His research interest is gene and cell therapies for neurological diseases. Using adeno-associated virus (AAV) vectors, his group has been developing gene therapies for Parkinson’s disease (PD), Alzheimer’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and spinocerebellar ataxia. As a principal investigator, he conducted a clinical trial of gene therapy for PD, in which AAV vectors expressing dopamine-synthesizing enzymes were infused into the putamen. Dr. Muramatsu’s expertise has contributed to a clinical trial of gene therapy for AADC deficiency in Taiwan and Japan. He is one of the founding members of Gene Therapy Research Institution Co., Ltd, which is currently ONODERA GT Pharma, Inc.

Lecture Abstract：

Executive Summary：
Ryosuke Takahashi, MD, PhD, graduated from Kyoto University, Japan, in 1983 and received his training in neurology at Kyoto University Hospital. In 1989, he began his career in basic research as a staff scientist at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Neurosciences. He subsequently worked as a postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Jon C. Reed at the Sanford-Burnham Institute in California, USA. In 1999, he became a Laboratory Head at the RIKEN Brain Science Institute.

In 2005, he was appointed Professor and Chair of the Department of Neurology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine. In 2024, he became a Program-Specific Professor at the Kyoto University Office of Research Acceleration (KURA) and the Department of Therapeutics for Multiple System Atrophy. In 2026, he was appointed Director of KURA and Vice President of Kyoto University.

He served as President of the Japanese Society of Neurology from 2014 to 2018 and has also served as President of the Movement Disorder Society of Japan and Vice President of the Japan Neuroscience Society. He is currently a member of the Science Council of Japan and serves on the editorial boards of Movement Disorders, Journal of Neural Transmission, and Molecular Brain.

He has published more than 500 original articles in peer-reviewed international journals and served as co-PI, with Prof. Jun Takahashi at CiRA, Kyoto University, of the clinical trial of iPS cell-based transplantation therapy for Parkinson’s disease.

Lecture Abstract：