Rate My Professor Yoshitaka Nagai

Yoshitaka Nagai is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Kindai University Faculty of Medicine, a position he has held since 2021. His prior appointments include Endowed Professor in the Department of Neurotherapeutics at Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine from 2016 to 2020, Laboratory Head in the Department of Neurology at the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry from 2008 to 2015, Associate Professor in Clinical Genetics at Osaka University Graduate School of Medicine from 2007 to 2008, and Assistant Professor in the same department from 2001 to 2007.

His research focuses on neuroscience and neurology, with particular emphasis on neurodegenerative diseases including polyglutamine diseases, Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, as well as mechanisms involving protein misfolding, RNA, and related therapeutic approaches. Notable publications include the 2023 paper “FUS regulates RAN translation through modulating the G-quadruplex structure of GGGGCC repeat RNA in C9orf72-linked ALS/FTD” in eLife and the 2023 paper on phosphatidylinositol-3,4,5-trisphosphate and alpha-synuclein in Acta Neuropathologica. He has also contributed book chapters such as “Arginine as a disease-modifying therapeutic candidate for the polyglutamine diseases” in 2021. Nagai received the Japan Dementia Society Award in 2016 and the Japan Society for Neurochemistry Encouragement Award in 2003. He has delivered invited lectures and served in various conference and research grant roles.