Tokyo Women's Medical University

Graduate School of Medical Science

Microscopic and Developmental Anatomy

About us

The department was founded in February, 1956 as Second Department of Anatomy by Professor Morio Ihnuma (till March, 1985) taking charge of histology. After his retirement, Professor Eizo Aikawa directed the department and proceeded to embryology in addition to histology (from September, 1988 till March, 2001). The name of the department was changed to Department of Anatomy & Developmental Biology in April 1992. The department has been directed by Taichi Ezaki from Kumamoto University since May, 2001. The aims of our education program are to demonstrate the beauty, exquisiteness and heterogeneity of living creatures and to consider the relationship between their morphology and biological function. The department is in charge of Cytology & Histology and Human embryology & Comparative embryology. Students learn general human microscopic anatomy and the mechanisms of embryogenesis during the course of integrated curriculum for the undergraduate medical education in Tokyo Women's Medical University.

Research

The department is open to all students and scientists who are interested in any morphological approaches to medical biology. Our strategies are a variety of morphological techniques including polychromatic immunohistochemistry, in situ hybridization, and computer-based image analyses for 3-demensional structures. The main facilities available are fluorescent light microscopy, phase-contrast microscopy, Nomarski differential-interference-contrast microscopy, confocal laser scanning microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. Both in vivo animal operation system and in vitro cell culture system are also undertaken in addition to various approaches in molecular biology.

Faculty

・Shunichi Morikawa (Senior lecturer) Ph.D.
・Kazuhiko Shimizu (Instructor) Ph.D.
・Sachiko Kikuta (Instructor) Ph.D.
・Shuji Kitahara (Instructor) D.D.S., Ph.D.
・Masae Morishima (Instructor) V.S., Ph.D.
・Ayako Sedohara (Instructor) Ph.D.

Related links

Research Achievements Database

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