Iwao Ojima

Iwao Ojima (born June 5, 1945 in Yokohama , Kanagawa Prefecture , Japan ) is an American chemist of Japanese origin. He is married to Yoko Ojima , a famous opera singer.

The needles of the European yew tree ( Taxus baccata ) contain baccatin III, from which paclitaxel can be synthesized using the Ojima-Holton method .

His area of work deals with the discovery and development of new active ingredients for chemotherapy , mainly through the derivatisation of taxanes , as well as new anti-thrombotic and cardiovascular active ingredients. In addition, he develops new synthetic routes for organic and organometallic chemistry and asymmetric Heck reactions .

Outstanding in his life's work and important for the chemical industry is the development of the Ojima-Holton process , which is used for the derivatization of taxanes . a. from Bristol-Myers Squibb .

Professor Ojima is Arthur C. Cope Scholar , Distinguished Professor, and Director of the Institute of Chemical Biology and Drug Discovery (ICB & DD) at Stony Brook University . For 2019 he was awarded the Ernest Guenther Award .

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Homepage of Iwao Ojima

personal data
SURNAME	Ojima, Iwao
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American chemist of Japanese descent
DATE OF BIRTH	June 5, 1945
PLACE OF BIRTH	Yokohama , Kanagawa Prefecture , Japan