2022.03.18 Announcement of the 7th Waseda IARBD seminar “Endocannabinoid systems and Neuroinflammation: Hype or Hope?” Chihiro Nozaki, Associate Professor, Waseda University The seventh seminar of the Waseda IARBD seminar series was a lecture given by Dr. Chihiro Nozaki, associate professor in Global Center for Science and Engineering at Waseda University. The lecture title was “Endocannabinoid systems and Neuroinflammation: Hype or Hope?”. Date : 20 April, 2022 Time : 17:00-18:00 (Japan Standard Time) Venue : Webinar, Zoom (You will know the link after your registration.) Lecturer : Dr. Chihiro Nozaki Associate professor, Waseda University Title : “Endocannabinoid systems and Neuroinflammation: Hype or Hope?” Registration Fee : Free Language : English Registration : Please register in the following link: https://forms.gle/E5gxhww8Uxh5rvC77 Closing Date : 18 April, 2022 Contact : IARBD-Office: IARBD-office@list.waseda.jp Biography Dr. Chihiro Nozaki received her Ph.D. in pharmacology at Hoshi University, Tokyo, Japan in 2007 for her thesis “Effect of diabetes on antinociceptive effect of oxycodone”. Then she moved to Institut de génétique et de biologie moléculaire et cellulaire in France as a postdoctoral fellow, including a 2-year fellowship from French Medical Research Foundation (2009-2011) for her work focusing on delta opioid receptors as the novel therapeutic target for intractable chronic pain. After spending 4-years at France, Dr. Nozaki has moved to University of Bonn as the senior postdoc at late 2011. Since 2016 she has obtained the research funding from German research foundation (DFG Eigene Stelle) which made her to work as the project leader to study the contribution of endocannabinoid systems to the pathological pain such as migraine and nerve injury-induced neuropathic pain. This project has been now expanded to unveil the possible bipolar function of cannabinoid receptors, and continued at Waseda University since 2019 under the financial support from JSPS (Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research). Abstract With the world-wide recent rush in popularity of cannabinoid, cannabis-based personal care products are popping up all over the market. They are often believed to be the perfect remedy for the number of complex yet QOL-harming diseases like cancer, epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, autoimmune diseases and chronic pain – even though the scientific or medical evidences are still limited. How come? It is absolutely because such cannabinoids improved some patients’ symptom and saved their life – possibly by modulating their endocannabinoid system, the biological system that regulates numerous physiological and cognitive processes. It is consist of enzyme that produce or degrade endocannabinoid ligands, as well as Gi/Go type G-protein coupled CB1 and CB2 receptors, which mostly work to “inhibit” the activity of cells that they express. Although it has been believed that CB1 receptors mainly express on neuronal cells of central nervous system and CB2 express on peripheral immune cells for long time, recent studies pointed out that these receptors are more expressed widely all over the body to regulate multiple body systems, including metabolic, neuronal and immune systems in once, at the various sites in the body. So here I would like to rise the small question: what will happen to our body when those receptors are gone? Hence, what will happen if our endocannabinoid system is disrupted? In the talk I will share the past and recent study that has been conducted to answer such a question, and therefore unveil what endocannabinoids are actually doing in our body – with the special focus on the pain and neuroinflammation, which is my current major research topic. Organized by the Institute for Advanced Research of Biosystem Dynamics (IARBD)
