Positions

Where training here leads

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We measure our training by what our members go on to do under their own names. Since 2016, lab members (including those in our predecessor laboratory at the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine, University of Tsukuba) have first-authored 16 peer-reviewed papers with us, including one in Neuron and two in Nature Communications. First authors range from postdoctoral fellows to medical and undergraduate students: one medical student’s project became a Molecular Brain paper and won the University of Tsukuba President’s Award, and an experiment by a short-term visiting student from the UK became a Scientific Reports paper that later grew into our clinical research program.

Four of our doctoral students have been selected as JSPS Research Fellows for Young Scientists (DC1/DC2).

First-author papers in leading journals

• Deependra Kumar — Neuron (2020): Sparse activity of hippocampal adult-born neurons during REM sleep is necessary for memory consolidation.
• Sakthivel Srinivasan — Nature Communications (2025): Transient reactivation of small ensembles of adult-born neurons during REM sleep.
• Pablo Vergara — Nature Communications (2025): A comprehensive suite for extracting neuron signals across multiple sessions.

Fellowships, won in the members’ own names

Between 2015 and 2026, nine members secured thirteen competitive fellowships and scholarships: four JSPS Research Fellowships for Young Scientists (DC1/DC2), four JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowships for Research in Japan (Deependra Kumar, Sakthivel Srinivasan, Pablo Vergara, and Yuteng Wang), two MEXT scholarships, and three private-foundation fellowships. We help candidates prepare these applications from the first draft onward.

Where our members go next

Three alumni now hold faculty positions: Deependra Kumar (Assistant Professor in Masashi Yanagisawa’s laboratory at the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine, University of Tsukuba), Pablo Vergara (Assistant Professor, University of Yamanashi), and a former visiting student who is now a Senior Lecturer in the UK. Sakthivel Srinivasan continues as a postdoctoral researcher in Paul Frankland’s laboratory in Toronto, Canada. Others continue research in France and Japan, or have moved into clinical medicine as physicians.

What we commit to

• A project on which you are the first author.
• Fellowship applications written together with you, from the first draft.
• Career planning from an early stage, with letters of reference when the time comes.
• A reply to your inquiry within two weeks.

English is the working language of the lab, and our members have come from eleven countries across Asia, Europe, the Americas, and Africa. Kobe is an easy city to live in as a newcomer to Japan — see Living in Kobe.