Tadatsugu Taniguchi

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Tadatsugu Taniguchi

Tadatsugu Taniguchi ( Japanese 谷口 維紹 , Taniguchi Tadatsugu ; born January 1, 1948 in Wakayama Prefecture ) is a Japanese immunologist who is known for research on interferons .

Taniguchi studied biology at the University of Tokyo ( Bachelor 1971), worked from 1972 to 1974 at the Laboratory for Biochemistry at the University of Naples and then went to the University of Zurich , where he received his doctorate in molecular biology under Charles Weissmann (with a thesis on Q - phage under alia, the cloning of the RNA - genome in a plasmid and point-specific mutagenesis ). From 1978 he was at the Cancer Research Center in Tokyo, where he achieved a breakthrough with sequencing the amino acid sequence (via the cDNA ) of interferon beta (then called fibroblast interferon) (while at the same time the interferon alpha gene was sequenced in Weissmann's laboratory and others Groups like those of Walter Fiers who also cloned interferon beta). For two years he was Visiting Associate Professor at New York University Medical Center and from 1984 he was Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology at Osaka University . Since 1995 he has been a professor at the Medical Faculty of the University of Tokyo. He is also an adjunct professor at New York University Medical School.

Taniguchi mainly researched the mode of action of interferons and he discovered the transcription factors (IRF transcription factors, interferon regulatory factor), which regulate the interferon response of the cell to viral infections . Nine such factors are known, the first of which was discovered in 1988. He also characterized interleukin- 2 and its mechanism of action.

In 1991 he received the Robert Koch Prize , the Hammer Prize in 1986, the Behring Kitasato Prize in 1988, the Milstein Award in 1988, the Asahi Prize in 1989 and the Osaka Science Prize, the Uehara Prize in 1994, the Fujihara Prize in 1996, 1997 the Keio Medical Science Prize and 2006 the Pezcoller Prize. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Zurich in 2007 . He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences (since 2003) and the Japanese Science Council, and an associate member of the European Molecular Biology Organization since 2018 .

literature

  • Taniguchi: Aimez vous Brahms? A story capriccioso from the discovery of a cytokine family and its regulators. In: Nature Immunology . Volume 10, 2009, p. 447

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Taniguchi, Ohno, Fuji-Kuriyama, Muramatsu: The nucleotide sequence of human fibroblast interferon cDNA. In: Genes. Volume 10, 1980, p. 11. Taniguchi et al. a .: Human leukocyte and fibroblast interferons are structurally related. In: Nature . Volume 285, 1980, p. 542. Taniguchi et al. a .: Expression of human fibroblast interferon gene in E. coli. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . Volume 77, 1980, p. 5230
  2. ^ First IRF factor: Miyamoto, Taniguchi u. a .: Regulated expression of a gene encoding a nuclear factor, IRF-1, that specifically binds to IFN-Beta gene regulatory elements. in: Cell. Volume 54, 1988, pp. 903-913. Review articles: Tamura, Yanai, Savitsky, Taniguchi: The IRF Family Transcription Factors in Immunity and Oncogenesis. In: Annual Review of Immunology . Volume 26, 2008, pp. 535-584
  3. ↑ Taniguchi et al. a .: Structure and expression of a cloned cDNA for human interleukin 2. In: Nature. Volume 302, 1983, p. 305
personal data
SURNAME Taniguchi, Tadatsugu
ALTERNATIVE NAMES 谷口 維紹 (Japanese)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Japanese immunologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 1, 1948
PLACE OF BIRTH Wakayama Prefecture