Joseph Takahashi, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Professor & Chair Endowed Title Loyd B. Sands Distinguished Chair in Neuroscience Schools Medical School | Graduate School Departments Neuroscience Graduate Programs Neuroscience Biography Download Curriculum Vitae Joseph S. Takahashi is Chair of the Department of Neuroscience at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He currently holds the Loyd B. Sands Distinguished Chair in Neuroscience. Before moving to UT Southwestern, Dr. Takahashi was the Walter and Mary Elizabeth Glass Professor in the Life Sciences at Northwestern University. During his 26-year tenure at Northwestern, he held appointments as professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Physiology on the Evanston campus and professor in the Department of Neurology at Northwestern University Medical School. In addition, he was also the director of the Center for Functional Genomics. Dr. Takahashi received a BA in biology from Swarthmore College in 1974 and a PhD in neuroscience from the University of Oregon, Eugene, in 1981. For postdoctoral training, he was a pharmacology research associate at the National Institute of Mental Health from 1981-1983. Dr. Takahashi has pioneered the use of forward genetics and positional cloning in the mouse as a tool for discovery of genes underlying neurobiology and behavior, and his discovery of the mouse and human clock genes led to a description of a conserved circadian clock mechanism in animals. He is the author of more than 360 scientific publications and the recipient of many awards including the Honma Prize in Biological Rhythms Research, NSF Presidential Young Investigator Award, Searle Scholars Award, Bristol-Myers Squibb Unrestricted Grant in Neuroscience, and the C. U. Ariens Kappers Medal. He received the W. Alden Spencer Award in Neuroscience from Columbia University in 2001, was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2000, a Member of the National Academy of Sciences in 2003 and a Member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2014. He received the Gruber Neuroscience Prize at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in 2019. Dr. Takahashi has served on a number of advisory committees for the National Institutes of Health, as well as scientific advisory boards for Eli Lilly and Company, Bristol-Myers Squibb Neuroscience Committee, the Genomics Research Institute for the Novartis Foundation, the Klingenstein Fund, the Searle Scholars Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the Allen Institute for Brain Science, the Max Planck Institute for Biophysical Chemistry, the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Aging and the Restless Legs Syndrome Foundation. He was also a co-founder of Hypnion, Inc., a biotech discovery company in Worcester, Mass., that investigated sleep/wake neurobiology and pharmaceuticals (now owned by Eli Lilly and Co.). He is a co-founder of Synchronicity Pharma., a biotech company that works on the role of clocks in sleep and cancer. He is or was on the Editorial Boards for Neuron, PNAS, eLife, J Biol Rhythms, Neurobiology of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms, Genes, Brain and Behavior, Aging Cell, and Specialty Lead, Genomics & Genetics/Animal Genetics, H1 Connect, Faculty Opinions. Education Undergraduate Swarthmore College (1974), Biology Graduate School University of Oregon (1981), Biology Research Interest Aging and longevity Circadian Biology Circadian clocks and parasites Genetic Dissection of Behavior Molecular Neuroscience Mouse Genetics and Genomics Oscillator dynamics Publications Featured Publications Timing of feeding mitigates metabolic effects of circadian disruption. Skinner NJ, Acosta-Rodríguez VA, Rijo-Ferreira F, Tups A, Takahashi JS, NPJ Biol Timing Sleep 2026 Jul 3 1 Nocturnin drives mitochondrial NADP(H)/NAD(H) rhythms to regulate steroid rhythm amplitude and time metabolism. Palluth L, Laothamatas I, Nguyen TN, Rasmussen ES, Zacharias LG, Velasquez MJ, Iñigo-Vollmer M, Fu X, Mathews TP, McDonald JG, Burgess SC, Takahashi JS, Green CB, bioRxiv 2026 Jul Not all gut cellular circadian oscillators are food entrainable. Magaña I, Taufique SKT, Shan Y, Shen M, Ehichioya DE, Takahashi JS, Yamazaki S, Obata Y, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2026 Jun 123 22 e2601012123 Time-restricted feeding extends healthspan in both sexes and lifespan in male C57BL/6 J mice. Iiams SE, Skinner NJ, Wight-Carter M, Acosta-Rodríguez VA, Green CB, Takahashi JS, Nat Aging 2026 Jun 6 6 1227-1243 Circadian Alignment Through Time-Restricted Feeding: Implications for Health and Longevity. Iiams SE, Skinner NJ, Green CB, Takahashi JS, Annu Rev Nutr 2026 May Keeping up with the nicotinamides: NADP(H), the forgotten circadian cofactor that keeps metabolic time. Palluth L, Takahashi JS, Green CB, Life Metab 2025 Dec 4 6 loaf034 Human CLOCK enhances neocortical function. Liu Y, Fontenot MR, Kulkarni A, Khandelwal N, Voth Park SHE, Criswell C, Harper M, Xu P, Gupta N, Gibson JR, Takahashi JS, Konopka G, Nat Neurosci 2025 Jun Parasite and vector circadian clocks mediate efficient malaria transmission. Bento I, Parrington BA, Pascual R, Goldberg AS, Wang E, Liu H, Borrmann H, Zelle M, Coburn N, Takahashi JS, Elias JE, Mota MM, Rijo-Ferreira F, Nat Microbiol 2025 Mar The time is now: accounting for time-of-day effects to improve reproducibility and translation of metabolism research. Deota S, Pendergast JS, Kolthur-Seetharam U, Esser KA, Gachon F, Asher G, Dibner C, Benitah SA, Escobar C, Muoio DM, Zhang EE, Hotamisligil GS, Bass J, Takahashi JS, Rabinowitz JD, Lamia KA, de Cabo R, Kajimura S, Longo VD, Xu Y, Lazar MA, Verdin E, Zierath JR, Auwerx J, Drucker DJ, Panda S, Nat Metab 2025 Mar 7 3 454-468 Recommendations for measuring and standardizing light for laboratory mammals to improve welfare and reproducibility in animal research. Lucas RJ, Allen AE, Brainard GC, Brown TM, Dauchy RT, Didikoglu A, Do MTH, Gaskill BN, Hattar S, Hawkins P, Hut RA, McDowell RJ, Nelson RJ, Prins JB, Schmidt TM, Takahashi JS, Verma V, Voikar V, Wells S, Peirson SN, PLoS Biol 2024 Mar 22 3 e3002535 Results 1-10 of 278 1 2 3 4 5 Next Last Books Featured Books Handbook of Behavioral Neurobiology: Volume 12 Circadian Clocks Takahashi, J.S., F.W. Turek and R.Y. Moore (Ed.) (2001). New York, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishing Honors & Awards Gruber Neuroscience PrizeThe Gruber Foundation, presented at the 2019 Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting (2019) National Academy of MedicineMember (2014) Outstanding Scientific Achievement AwardSleep Research Society (2012) National Academy of SciencesMember (2003) W. Alden Spencer AwardCollege of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University (2001) American Academy of Arts and SciencesFellow (2000) 6th C.U. Ariens Kappers AwardNetherlands Society for the Advancement of Natural Sciences, Medicine and Surgery (1995) Honma Prize in Biological Rhythms ResearchHonma Foundation of Life Sciences (1986) Professional Associations/Affiliations American Academy of Arts and Sciences (2000) National Academy of Medicine (2014) National Academy of Sciences (2003)
