To administer, manage, and maintain facilities to farm experimental animals used in studies on geriatric medicine, and to conduct research mainly in the area of neuroscience using genetically-modified mice. We have prepared mice from which neurons can be removed by causing genetic recombination in limited cells at a given point of time. These mice can be used to destroy specific genes at a given point of time. We found that removing cerebellar Purkinje cells (Note 1) in adult mice prevented them from motor learning, and that removing Purkinje cells after motor learning prevented the acquired kinesthetic memory from developing in those mice. Thus we demonstrated that Purkinje cells have an important role in acquiring and maintaining kinesthetic memory. We found that postnatally removing part of hippocampal neurons retarded adaptation to new environments and increased reactions in fear conditioning (Note 2). For multiple genes, we prepare mice with site-specifically disrupted genes to perform biochemical and behavioral analyses. Note 1: One of the important types of neurons in the cerebellum, playing a major role in regulating motor functions. Note 2: Inducing a fear reaction by electric stimulation in an environment unlikely to cause fear reactions forces the animal to cause fear reactions in the same environment thereafter. This means the environment has been associated with a sense of fear in the animal, and the hippocampus is considered to play an important role in this association. back to index