Yoshihiro Kawaoka

Yoshihiro Kawaoka ( Japanese 河 岡 義 裕 , Kawaoka Yoshihiro ; * 1955 ) is a Japanese virologist , known for research on influenza viruses .

biography

Kawaoka studied at the University of Hokkaidō , where he obtained his bachelor's degree in veterinary medicine in 1978 and his master's degree in 1980. In 1983 he received his doctorate from the same university. He is Professor of Virology in the Department of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Wisconsin-Madison .

Kawaoka is a leading expert on influenza viruses. In particular, he examined the transmission from animal to human and between animal species as well as the molecular mechanisms of pathogenicity in birds and mammals.

In 2004, in his high-security laboratory, he isolated two of the genes that were responsible for the extraordinary pathogenicity of the 1918 influenza virus (as did other research groups at the same time). One coded for hemagglutinin , the other for neuraminidase . Built into a variant of the flu virus that was previously harmless for the experimental animals used as mice, it caused symptoms in mice (massive lung infection, internal bleeding) similar to those of the 1918 epidemic, which killed 20 million people. The experiment showed that changing just one gene could turn a harmless variant of the flu into a variant with the potential of a pandemic. He was also able to detect high antibody levels in survivors of the 1918 epidemic against the artificial virus variant. Kawaoka was also able to find evidence that the 1918 virus was originally an avian virus.

In 1999 he and his group (in a further development of a method by Peter Palese ) developed a reverse genetics technique to develop artificial influenza viruses by encoding each of the 8 viral RNA genes separately in a plasmid and then joining the plasmids together in a cell . In doing so, they demonstrated, for example, that non-pathogenic forms of viruses can be developed by modifying the hemagglutinin cleavage sites. These cleavage sites are different for pathogenic and non-pathogenic virus forms, from which Kawaoka and others also developed new markers for pathogenic influenza virus forms in the late 1980s. The technology also enables the development of new flu vaccines that can also be used against bird flu . The original virus would kill the cells in the eggs that are commonly used to propagate flu viruses for vaccines. With the reverse genetics technique, however, less pathogenic modified virus forms can be produced and vaccines against them can be developed that are also effective against the original viruses.

Kawaoka found receptors in the human respiratory tract for the influenza A virus H5N1 , the causative agent of the avian flu H5N1 , and in 2006 identified mutations that cause a particular pathogenicity in avian flu H5N1 by binding particularly well to these receptors.

Kawaoka also helped characterize the H1N1 influenza virus from the 2009 pandemic . He is also researching new flu medications after he found evidence around 2004 that the resistance of flu viruses to a common anti-flu agent (neuroaminidase inhibitors) was increasing.

He also deals with the Ebola virus (pathogenesis, reproduction).

In 2006 he received the Robert Koch Prize together with Peter Palese . In 2002 he received the Hideo Noguchi Memorial Award, in 2007 the Japan Prize for Agricultural Science / Yomiuri Agriculture Prize. In 2013 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences . In 2015 he received the Carlos J. Finlay Prize from UNESCO .

Fonts

• Editor: Influenza Virology- current topics , Caister Academic Press 2006
• Editor: Biology of negative strand RNA viruses: the power of reverse genetics , Springer 2004

Web links

• Homepage
• Kawaoka New ways of fighting influenza , lecture on the occasion of the Robert Koch Prize 2006

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Tōkyō Denryoku, Illume: Yoshihiro Kawaoka  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Kobasa, Kawaoka et al. a., Enhanced virulence of influenza A viruses with the haemagglutinin of the 1918 pandemic virus , Nature, Volume 431, 2004, pp. 703-707 (October 7, 2004). Report on this ( memento of the original from January 12, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ Kawaoka, Speech on the Robert Koch Prize. Tackling the Influenza Virus , University of Wisconsin ( Memento of the original from June 9, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .