In 1971 while he was a visiting professor atWesleyan University,[4] he consulted the chairman of theAmerican Chemical Society,Max Tishler, at an international conference. Together they successfully acquired research expenses fromMerck & Co.[6] Ōmura was considering continuing his research in the United States, but ultimately he decided to return to Japan.
In 1973, he became a director of the antibiotic laboratory atKitasato University,[7] and he also started collaborative research with Merck & Co.[8]
In 1975, he became professor of Kitasato University School of Pharmacy. Meanwhile, the Ōmura laboratory raised many researchers and produced 31 university professors and 120 doctors.
At present date, Ōmura is professor emeritus at Kitasato University and Max Tishler Professor of Chemistry at Wesleyan University.
Satoshi Ōmura is known for the discovery and development of various pharmaceuticals originally occurring in microorganisms. He was awarded the 2015Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly withWilliam C. Campbell for discoveries concerning a novel therapy against infections caused byroundwormparasites. More precisely, his research group isolated a strain ofStreptomyces avermitilis that produce the anti-parasitical compoundavermectin.[2] Campbell later acquired these bacteria and developed the derived drugivermectin that was commercialised for veterinary use in 1981, later put to human use againstOnchocerciasis in 1987–88 with the nameMectizan,[2] and is used againstriver blindness,lymphatic filariasis,scabies, other parasitic infections.[3][9][10]
Since the 1970s, Ōmura has discovered more than 480 new compounds, of which 25 kinds of drugs and reagents are in use. Examples includeandrastin,herbimycin,neoxaline as well as:
a fatty acid biosynthesis inhibitor namedcerulenin;
Furthermore, compounds having a unique structure and biological activity discovered by Omura are drawing attention indrug discovery research, and newanticancer drugs and the like have been created.
Ōmura, S. (2011). "Microbial metabolites: 45 years of wandering, wondering and discovering".Tetrahedron.67 (35):6420–6459.doi:10.1016/j.tet.2011.03.117.
Ōmura served as deputy director and director at theKitasato Institute. He was devoted to rebuild the laboratory and promoting the establishment of the medical center that is nowKitasato University Medical Center. Meanwhile, he established a path to rebuilding of the corporate school juridical person, which has integrated with the School corporation Kitasato Gakuen. He succeeded in establishing a new "School corporation Kitasato Institute". In addition, he served as president of the School corporationJoshibi University of Art and Design twice, and served as the honorary school chief of the School corporationKaichi Gakuen.[11] In 2007, he established theNirasaki Omura Art Museum on his collection.[12]
Satoshi Ōmura (left) andWilliam C. Campbell (right) in Stockholm, December 2015.
Statues of children leading adults blinded byonchocerciasis, outside Kitasato University buildings, were produced by sculptors ofBurkina Faso in honor of Ōmura's invention of avermectin and ivermectin, a symbol of the campaign to eradicate onchocerciasis.[13] Similar life-sized bronze statues were erected atWorld Health Organization (WHO) headquarters inGeneva,Carter Center,Merck & Co.,World Bank Headquarters, and Burkina Faso's World Health Organization Africa Onchocerciasis Control Program.
