Council Dates: October 2007 - May 2008
Independent Position: Department of Pediatrics, Children's Hospital Los Angeles
Takako Makita was a Post-Doctoral Research Fellow in Neuroscience at Johns Hopkins University. In the laboratory of David Ginty, her research project addressed the role of endothelin signaling as a critical mechanism that controls the projection of sympathetic axons from the superior cervical ganglia (SCG). More specifically, she conducted experiments to address and extend a model in which endothelin signaling, emanating from smooth muscle of the external carotid arteries, is a required guidance cue for SCG axons. She earned her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from the University of Southern California, and her B.S. in Chemistry from Tokyo Metropolitan University.