Chancellor's Fellow & Associate Professor, Anatomy & Neurobiology
School of Medicine

memory, olfaction, Alzherimer's disease, hippocampus, entorhinal cortex

Igarashi Lab Website

2009 - 2015 Postdoc/Research Associate
Edvard and May-Britt Moser lab
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

2007- 2009 Postdoc
Kensaku Mori lab, Univ of Tokyo

The Igarashi laboratory at University of California Irvine investigates:

(i) circuit mechanisms for associative memory in entorhinal cortex and hippocampus, and
(ii) how these mechanisms in the memory circuit are affected and can be manipulated to restore memory in Alzheimer’s disease models.

To this end, we use in vivo tetrode/silicon probe recordings from behaving mice, optogenetics, memory behavioral tasks, and single-cell anatomy.

2023 Japan Academy Medal, Japan Academy
2023 JSPS Prize, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
2022 Medical Education Excellence Award in Teaching, UC Irvine School of Medicine
2022 Robert & Sylvia Mapel Research Endowment, UC Irvine School of Medicine
2022 Outstanding Early-Career Faculty Research Award, UC Irvine School of Medicine
2019 BrightFocus Foundation Alzheimer’s Disease Award
2019 New Vision Scholar on Alzheimer’s Disease Research, New Vision Research Foundation
2018 Ando Momofuku Award, Ando Foundation
2017 Mishima Kaiun Prize, Mishima Kaiun Memorial Foundation
2017 Fay/Frank Seed Award, Brain Research Foundation
2016 PRESTO Career Development Award, Japan Science and Technology Agency
2015 Excellence in Teaching Award, Norwegian University of Science and Technology
2014 Young Investigator Award, Japan Neuroscience Society
2013 Research Grant, Mishima Kaiun Memorial Foundation
2012 Norwegian Research Council Post-doctoral Fellowship
2007 – 2009 Post-doctoral Fellowship, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
2004 – 2007 Graduate Fellowship, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Igarashi KM* (2023)
Entorhinal cortex dysfunction in Alzheimer's disease
Trends in Neuroscience, 46:124-136 doi.org/10.1016/j.tins.2022.11.006

Igarashi KM*, Lee JY, Jun H (2022)
Reconciling neuronal representations of schema, abstract task structure, and categorization under cognitive maps in the entorhinal-hippocampal-frontal circuits (Invited review)
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 77:102641 doi: 10.1016/j.conb.2022.102641

Funane, T, Jun H, Sutoko, S, Saido TC, Kandori A, and Igarashi KM* (2022)
Impaired sharp-wave ripple coordination between the medial entorhinal cortex and hippocampal CA1 of knock-in model of Alzheimer’s Disease
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience 16:955178, doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2022.955178

Lee JY, Jun H, Soma S, Nakazono T, Shiraiwa K, Dasgupta A, Nakagawa T, Xie JL, Chavez J, Romo R,
Yungblut Y, Hagihara M, Murata K, and Igarashi KM* (2021)
Dopamine facilitates associative memory encoding in the entorhinal cortex
Nature, 598:321-326

Jun H, Chavez J, Bramian, A, Igarashi KM* (2021)
Protocol for remapping of place cells in disease mouse models.
STAR Protocols, 2:100759

Jun H, Bramian A, Soma S, Saito T, Saido TC, Igarashi KM* (2020)
Disrupted place cell remapping and impaired grid cells in a knockin model of Alzheimer’s disease
Neuron, 107:1-18

Nakazono T, Jun H, Blurton-Jones, M, Green KN, Igarashi KM* (2018)
Gamma oscillations in the entorhinal-hippocampal circuit underlying memory and dementia
Neurosci Res, 129:40-46

Cavarretta F, Burton SD, Igarashi KM, Shepherd GM, Hines ML, Migliore M (2018)
Parallel odor processing by mitral and middle tufted cells in the olfactory bulb
Scientific Reports. 8:7625

Nakazono T, Lam TN, Patel AY, Kitazawa M, Saito T, Saido TC, Igarashi KM* (2017)
Impaired In Vivo Gamma Oscillations in the Medial Entorhinal Cortex of Knock-in Alzheimer Model
Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 11:48

Igarashi KM* (2016)
Entorhinal map of space
Brain Research, 1637:177-87 (*Corresponding author)

Watanabe H, Rajagopalan UM, Nakamichi Y, Igarashi KM, Kadono H, Tanifuji M. (2016)
Functional optical coherence tomography of rat olfactory bulb with periodic odor stimulation.
Biomed Opt Express. 7:841-5

Igarashi KM* (2015)
Plasticity in oscillatory coupling between hippocampus and cortex
Curr Opin Neurobiol. 35:163-168 (*Corresponding author)

Lu L, Igarashi KM, Witter MP, Moser EI, Moser MB (2015)
Topography of Place Maps along the CA3-to-CA2 Axis of the Hippocampus.
Neuron. 87:1078-92

Igarashi KM*, Lu L, Colgin LL, Moser MB, Moser EI* (2014)
Coordination of entorhinal-hippocampal ensemble activity during associative learning.
Nature. 510: 143-7 (*Co-corresponding authors)

Igarashi KM*, Ito HT, Moser EI, Moser, M-B (2014)
Functional diversity along the transverse axis of hippocampal area CA1.
FEBS Lett. 588:2470-2476 (*Corresponding author)

Nagayama S, Igarashi KM, Manabe H, Mori K (2014)
Parallel tufted cell and mitral cell pathways from the olfactory bulb to the olfactory cortex.
In: Olfactory System: From Odor Molecules to Motivational Behaviors. Springer

Igarashi KM*, Ieki N, An M, Yamaguchi Y, Nagayama S, Kobayakawa K, Kobayakawa R, Tanifuji M, Sakano H, Chen WR, Mori K* (2012)
Parallel mitral and tufted cell pathways route distinct odor information to different targets in the
olfactory cortex.
Journal of Neuroscience. 32:7970-85 (*Co-corresponding authors)

Mitsui S, Igarashi KM, Mori K and Yoshihara Y (2011)
Genetic visualization of the secondary olfactory pathway in Tbx21 transgenic mice.
Neural Systems & Circuits. 1:5

Watanabe H, Rajagopalan UM, Nakamichi Y, Igarashi KM, Kadono H, Tanifuji M (2011)
Swept source optical coherence tomography as a tool for real time visualization and localization of electrodes used in electrophysiological studies of brain in vivo.
Biomedical Optics Express. 2:3129-3134

Watanabe H, Rajagopalan UM, Nakamichi Y, Igarashi KM, Madjarova VD, Kadono H, Tanifuji M (2011)
In vivo layer visualization of rat olfactory bulb by a swept source optical coherence tomography and its confirmation through electrocoagulation and anatomy.
Biomedical Optics Express. 2:2279-2287

Tsuboi A, Imai T, Kato HK, Matsumoto H, Igarashi KM, Suzuki M, Mori K, Sakano H (2011)
Two highly homologous mouse odorant receptors encoded by tandemly-linked MOR29A and MOR29B genes respond
differently to phenyl ethers.
European Journal of Neuroscience. 33:205-13

Nagayama S, Enerva A, Fletcher ML, Masurkar AV, Igarashi KM, Mori K, Chen WR (2010)
Differential axonal projection of mitral and tufted cells in the mouse main olfactory system.
Frontiers in Neural Circuits. 4. Pii120

Mori K, Matsumoto H, Tsuno Y, Igarashi KM (2009)
Dendrodendritic synapses and functional compartmentalization in the olfactory bulb.
Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1070:255-258

Mori K, Takahashi YK, Igarashi KM, Yamaguchi M (2006)
Maps of odorant molecular features in the Mammalian olfactory bulb.
Physiol Rev.86:409-433

Mori K, Takahashi YK, Igarashi K, and Nagayama S (2005)
Odor Maps in the Dorsal and Lateral Surfaces of the Rat Olfactory Bulb.
Chemical Senses. 30:i103-i104

Igarashi KM, Mori K (2005)
Spatial representation of hydrocarbon odorants in the ventrolateral zones of the rat olfactory bulb.
Journal of Neurophysiology. 93:1007-1019

Whitehall Foundation Research Grant 9/1/17 – 8/31/21 Total: $225,000 Role: PI

Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant 10/1/17 – 9/30/21 Total: $150,000 Role: PI

NIH / NIA R01 AG063864 8/1/19 – 5/31/24 Total: $1,931,250 Role: PI

BrightFocus Foundation Research grant 7/1/19 – 6/31/22 Total: $300,000 Role: PI

NIH / NIMH R01 MH121736 9/12/19 – 6/30/24 Total: $1,981,219 Role: PI

NIH / NIA R01 AG066806 5/1/20 – 1/31/25 Total: $1,962,500 Role: PI

Society for Neuroscience

Federation of European Neuroscience Societies

Japan Neuroscience Society

Norwegian Neuroscience Society

Ad-hoc Reviewer
NIH Neurobiology of Learning and Memory study section (LAM)

Ad-hoc Reviewer
NIH Brain Initiative study section ZRG1 IFCN-T(55)

Ad-hoc Reviewer
Wellcome Trust (UK)

Ad-hoc Reviewer
Nature, Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Journal of Neuroscience, eLife

Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program

Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory

UC Irvine Institute for Memory Impairments and Neurological Disorders (UCI MIND)

Link to this profile
https://faculty.uci.edu/profile/?facultyId=6379

Last updated
02/14/2024