Takato Hiranita Ph.D.
Research Assistant Professor
About Takato Hiranita
Takato Hiranita, Ph.D., joined the University of Florida College of Pharmacy in May 2018 as a research assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacodynamics. Dr. Hiranita received his B.S. degree in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Molecular Bioformatics) from Kyushu University, and his Ph.D. in the Department of Pharmacology (Pharmaceutical Sciences) from the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University. Upon completion of his doctoral studies under the supervision of Drs. Tsuneyuki Yamamoto and Kazuhide Inoue, Dr. Hiranita has joined the laboratory of Dr. Jonathan L. Katz at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), National Institutes of Health (NIH), as a postdoctoral research fellow. Dr. Hiranita was a Staff Fellow in the Division of Neurotoxicology, National Center for Toxicological Research (NCTR), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where he was the head of a rodent behavioral and neurochemical pharmacology lab. Dr. Hiranita is an Adjunct Basic Science Associate Professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Medicine (UAMS). Dr. Hiranita was the principal investigator for studies from the Center for Tobacco Products ($5.1M) and Drug Enforcement Administration ($2.4M).
Research Profile
Dr. Hiranita’s research interests are preclinical abuse potential and efficacy assessments of novel compounds as medications for drug abuse using intravenous drug self-administration procedures. Drugs of interest include atypical dopamine uptake inhibitors and sigma receptor ligands.