Dr Makino started his scientific career at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies where he studied adult mammalian neurogenesis in the hippocampus. He obtained his PhD from the Watson School of Biological Sciences at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory where he studied AMPA receptor dynamics and synaptic plasticity. He conducted his postdoctoral research at University of California, San Diego where he investigated learning-related transformations of micro- and macro-scale cortical activity. He is a recipient of the NARSAD young investigator grant from the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.