Susumu Tonegawa

Molecular biologist. Born in Aichi Prefecture. After graduating from the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Kyoto University in 1963 (Showa 38), he became a graduate student at the Institute for Virus Research at the same university before studying abroad at the University of California, San Diego, USA, where he obtained his doctorate. He became a researcher at the Salk Institute in the USA, and in 1971 became a senior researcher at the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland. In 1981, he became a professor in the Department of Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Cancer Institute in the USA. The structure of DNA genes was thought to be immutable, but he elucidated the mechanism by which DNA rearranges its own structure in immunoglobulin genes, demonstrating that the structure of chromosomes changes. He received the Grand Prize in Genetics in 1981, became a Person of Cultural Merit in 1983, and was awarded the Order of Culture in 1984. He became a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences in 1986, and in 1987, he became the first Japanese person to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the "genetic principle of antibody diversity generation." Since the 1990s, he has devoted himself to research into the mechanisms of the brain, and has been active in the field of brain science, becoming director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Research in Learning and Memory in 1994 (until 2006), director of the RIKEN-MIT Brain Science Center in 1998, and director of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in 2009.

[Editorial Department]

"Challenging Life - The World of Tonegawa Susumu and Hanabusa Hidesaburo" by Tonegawa Susumu and Hanabusa Hidesaburo (1988, Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun)" ▽ "Mind and Matter - To What Extent Can Molecular Biology Solve the Mysteries of Life?" by Tachibana Takashi and Tonegawa Susumu (Bunshun Bunko)" ▽ "My Lectures on Brain Science" by Tonegawa Susumu (Iwanami Shinsho)" ▽ "Nobel Prize Winners 1: Protecting Life, Prize in Physiology or Medicine" by Nathan Arseng, translated by Makino Kenji (1991, Dainippon Tosho)"

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

分子生物学者。愛知県生まれ。1963年（昭和38）京都大学理学部化学科を卒業後、同ウイルス研究所の大学院生を経て、アメリカのカリフォルニア大学サン・ディエゴ校に留学し博士号を取得。アメリカのソーク研究所の研究員となり、1971年スイスのバーゼル免疫学研究所主任研究員。1981年アメリカのマサチューセッツ工科大学癌(がん)研究所生物学部教授。遺伝子DNAの構成は不変と考えられていたが、免疫グロブリン遺伝子ではDNAが自ら構成の再配列を行う機構を明らかにし、染色体の構造が変わることを示した。1981年遺伝学大賞を受賞、1983年文化功労者となり、1984年文化勲章を受章。1986年全米科学アカデミー外国人会員となり、1987年「抗体の多様性生成の遺伝的原理」の発見で、日本人初のノーベル医学生理学賞を受賞した。1990年代以降は脳内機構の研究に専念、1994年（平成6）マサチューセッツ工科大学学習・記憶研究センター長（2006年まで）、1998年理研-MIT脳科学センター長、2009年（平成21）理化学研究所脳科学総合研究センター長に就任し、脳科学の分野でも活躍している。

［編集部］

『利根川進・花房秀三郎著『生命に挑む――利根川進・花房秀三郎の世界』（1988・日刊工業新聞社）』▽『立花隆・利根川進著『精神と物質――分子生物学はどこまで生命の謎を解けるか』（文春文庫）』▽『利根川進著『私の脳科学講義』（岩波新書）』▽『ネイサン・アーセング著、牧野賢治訳『ノーベル賞の人びと1　生命をまもる　生理学・医学賞』（1991・大日本図書）』

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