Akira Endo

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Akira Endo

Akira Endō ( Japanese 遠藤 章 , Endō Akira ; born November 14, 1933 in Higashiyuri (today: Yurihonjō ), Akita Prefecture ) is a Japanese biochemist, former professor at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (English for Tōkyō Nōkō Daigaku ) and director of the company Biopharm Research Laboratories (English for 株式会社 バ イ オ フ ァ ー ム 研究所 , KK Biopharm Kenkyūjo ).

Life

Endō graduated from the Faculty of Agriculture at Tōhoku University in Sendai with a BA in 1957 and a Ph.D. in 1967. in biochemistry . Endō made from 1957 in the research department of the pharmaceutical company Sankyō career. A research stay took him between 1966 and 1968 at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City . In 1979 Endō took over a professorship (Associate Professor) at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology in Fuchū ( Tokyo Prefecture ), from 1986 as a full professor. After his retirement in 1997, he took over the management of Biopharm Research Laboratories in Mitaka , Tokyo Prefecture.

In 2009 he became visiting professor at the Institute of Innovation Research at Hitotsubashi University .

Act

In the early 1970s, Endō systematically tested around 6,000 extracts from various mushrooms for the Sankyō company . In 1976 he identified a substance with the laboratory name ML-236B from Penicillium citrinum , which had a high affinity for HMG-CoA reductase , an enzyme with a key function in the synthesis of cholesterol . This substance had already been isolated in other laboratories under the name Compactin , but had not been pursued because it had only a minor effect on the cholesterol levels of the test rats. Endo was able to show, however, that ML-236B lowers serum cholesterol in monkeys and dogs , whose blood lipids are more similar to those of humans. In 1980 the substance was first used successfully in people with familial hypercholesterolemia .

Endō carried out chemical, biochemical and pharmacological studies on ML-236B and similar other cholesterol-lowering substances, which are known today under the group name statins . Statins are now among the most important - and top-selling - drugs in the treatment of coronary artery disease (CHD).

Michael S. Brown and Joseph L. Goldstein , who were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1985 for their research on cholesterol metabolism , also relied on Endō's work .

Awards (selection)

Web links

Commons : Akira Endō  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dr. Akira Endo Profile at japanprize.jp; Retrieved December 5, 2010
  2. ↑ 1980 - 1989 - Heinrich Wieland Prize - Homepage. In: heinrich-wieland-prize.de. Retrieved January 23, 2016 .
  3. ↑ 2006 (22nd) JAPAN PRIZE LAUREATES at japanprize.jp; Retrieved December 5, 2010
  4. ↑ Massry Prize Winners (1996 – present) on usc.edu; accessed on May 21, 2019.
  5. ^ Lasker ~ DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award 2008 Winners at laskerfoundation.org; Retrieved December 5, 2010
  6. ↑ 2012 honorary doctorates from the University of Pennsylvania ( Memento from August 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Endo, Akira
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 遠藤 章 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH November 14, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Higashiyuri , Akita Prefecture