Marcelo Kakihara is a visiting PhD student from Kyoto University, Japan. He joined MIB as a recipient of the Circular Material Consortium award from Kyoto University and a scholarship from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan.

During his stay in MIB he will be supervised by Associate Professor Massimo Lumaca and will collaborate with Lumaca in his MRI study investigating how network-level fingerprints in the brain bias rhythm transmission.

In Japan, Marcelo conducts research on healthy ageing and music. Currently, his objective is to understand how practicing a musical instrument in late adulthood affects the brain.

Marcelo is also a piano teacher graduated in São Paulo University, Brazil. He loves swimming and hiking and have recently have been engaged in campaigns to combat discrimination towards older adults, especially in Luzon, the Philippines where he conducted a project with young university students.