Tasuku Honjo | |
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本庶 佑 | |
 Honjo in 2013 | |
| Born | (1942-01-27)27 January 1942 (age 83) |
| Education | Kyoto University (BS,MD,PhD) |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Molecular Immunology |
| Institutions | Kyoto University |
| Doctoral advisor | |
| Notable students | Shizuo Akira |
Tasuku Honjo (本庶 佑,Honjo Tasuku; born January 27, 1942)[2] is a Japanesephysician-scientist andimmunologist. He won the 2018Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and is best known for his identification ofprogrammed cell death protein 1 (PD-1).[3] He is also known for his molecular identification ofcytokinesIL-4 andIL-5,[4] as well as the discovery of activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) that is essential forclass switch recombination andsomatic hypermutation.[5]
He was elected as a foreign associate of theNational Academy of Sciences of theUnited States (2001), as a member ofGerman Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina (2003), and also as a member of theJapan Academy (2005).
In 2018, he was awarded theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along withJames P. Allison.[6] He and Allison together had won the 2014Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science for the same achievement.[7]
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Honjo was born in Kyoto in 1942. He completed hisM.D. degree in 1966 from the Faculty of Medicine,Kyoto University, where in 1975 he received hisPh.D. degree in medical chemistry under the supervision ofYasutomi Nishizuka andOsamu Hayaishi.[8]
Honjo was a visiting fellow at the Department of Embryology atCarnegie Institution of Washington, from 1971 to 1973. He then moved to the U.S.National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, Maryland, where he studied the genetic basis for the immune response at theNational Institute of Child Health and Human Development as a fellow between 1973 and 1977, followed by many years as an NIH Fogarty Scholar in Residence starting in 1992. During part of this time, Honjo also was an assistant professor at theFaculty of Medicine, University of Tokyo, between 1974 and 1979; a professor in the Department of Genetics,Osaka University School of Medicine, between 1979 and 1984; and professor in the Department of Medical Chemistry, Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine, from 1984 to 2005. Since 2005 Honjo has been a professor in Department of Immunology and Genomic Medicine, Kyoto University Faculty of Medicine.[8] He was the President ofShizuoka Prefecture Public University Corporation from 2012 to 2017.
He is a member of the Japanese Society for Immunology and served as its president between 1999 and 2000. Honjo is also an honorary member ofAmerican Association of Immunologists.[9] In 2017 he became Deputy Director-General and Distinguished Professor of Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study (KUIAS).[10]
Honjo has publicly criticized the Japanese government's suspension of proactiveHPV vaccine recommendations, describing the decision as lacking scientific justification and posing a serious public health risk. He expressed concern that misinformation and media sensationalism had undermined evidence-based policy. In support of journalistRiko Muranaka, Honjo submitted a written opinion during her defamation lawsuit, emphasizing the importance of scientific reproducibility and defending her reporting on HPV vaccine safety.[11][12]
During theCOVID-19 pandemic, a disputed claim that Honjo believed that the novel coronavirus had been "manufactured" by a laboratory in the Chinese city of Wuhan was widely disseminated on the internet in many languages.[13] The BBC Reality Check team reported that, "In a statement published on the website of Kyoto University, he said he was 'greatly saddened' that his name had been used to spread 'false accusations and misinformation'.[13]
Honjo has established the basic conceptual framework ofclass switch recombination.[5] He presented a model explaining antibody gene rearrangement in class switch and, between 1980 and 1982, verified its validity by elucidating itsDNA structure.[14] He succeeded incDNA clonings ofIL-4[15] andIL-5[16] cytokines involved in class switching andIL-2 receptor alpha chain in 1986, and went on further to discoverAID[17] in 2000, demonstrating its importance in class switch recombination andsomatic hypermutation.
In 1992, Honjo first identifiedPD-1 as an inducible gene on activated T-lymphocytes, and this discovery significantly contributed to the establishment ofcancer immunotherapy principle by PD-1 blockade.[18]
Honjo has received several awards and honors in his life. In 2016, he won theKyoto Prize in Basic Sciences for "Discovery of the Mechanism Responsible for the Functional Diversification of Antibodies, Immunoregulatory Molecules and Clinical Applications of PD-1". In 2018, he shared theNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with American immunologistJames P. Allison. They previously also shared theTang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science in 2014.[6][10]
The major awards and honors received by Honjo are:
Order of Culture[10]"The adverse effects of the cervical cancer vaccine have not been scientifically proven. Since the suspension of proactive recommendations, the vaccination rate dropped from 70% to below 1%." — Tasuku Honjo
「科学において再現性のない主張は、捏造と同じくらい有害である」
Media related toTasuku Honjo at Wikimedia Commons
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