T. Narahashi

Toshio Narahashi was born in Fukuoka, Japan, and he works as a Professor of Pharmacology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. He received his D.V.M. degree in 1948 and Ph.D. degree in 1960 from the University of Tokyo. After spending about 10 years as a Faculty Member, he came to the USA, first to the University of Chicago in 1961 and then to Duke University Medical Center (1965), where he rose from the position of Assistant Professor to Associate Professor in 1967 and then to Professor in 1969. After spending 12 years at Duke, he was recruited to Northwestern University as a Professor and a Chairman of the Department of Pharmacology in 1977. He stepped down from the chairmanship in 1994 after serving for 17 years and has since continued his research and teaching activities as a Professor. His research involves pharmacology and toxicology of receptors and ion channels of excitable cells using voltage clamp and patch clamp techniques. During his tenure at the University of Tokyo, he devoted himself to the study of physiological mechanism of action of insecticides and is credited in discovering the sodium channel modulation caused by DDT and pyrethroids as the major mechanism of toxicity. He also undertook a study that suggested the selective tetrodotoxin (TTX) inhibition of sodium channels (1960). More recently, he has been working on the mechanism of action of alcohol, anesthetics, and Alzheimer’s drugs on neuroreceptors and ion channels.

Biography Updated on 8 November 2010

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