Associate Professor/Research
Department of Pharmacology, UT Health San Antonio
Dr. Takato Hiranita earned a B.S. degree in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Molecular Bioformatics) from Kyushu University, and a Ph.D. in the Department of Pharmacology (Pharmaceutical Sciences, Drs. Tsuneyuki Yamamoto and Kazuhide Inoue) from the Graduate School of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyushu University. 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 and Drug Enforcement Administration. Thereafter, Dr. Hiranita joined the University of Florida College of Pharmacy as a research assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacodynamics and the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Jerry H. Hodge School of Pharmacy, as a research assistant professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (Dr. Lance R. McMahon’s lab). Currently, Dr. Hiranita is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology (Dr. Charles P. France’s lab), University of Texas Health San Antonio. 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.