Tadatsugu Taniguchi

Tadatsugu Taniguchi (谷口 維紹, Taniguchi Tadatsugu, born January 1, 1948 in Wakayama Prefecture) is a Japanese immunologist known for his pioneer research on Interferons and Interferon regulatory factors.

Tadatsugu Taniguchi
Born	(1948-01-01) January 1, 1948 Aridagawa, Wakayama, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Alma mater	University of Zurich Tokyo University of Education
Known for	Interferons Interferon regulatory factors
Awards	Robert Koch Prize Japan Academy Prize Keio Medical Science Prize (1997) Asahi Prize (1988)
Scientific career
Fields	Immunology Oncology
Institutions	University of Tokyo Osaka University New York University Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research
Doctoral advisor	Charles Weissmann

Contribution

Taniguchi's work is mostly focused on immunity and oncogenesis, in particular on the mechanisms of signal transduction and gene expression. While working at the Cancer Institute in Tokyo, he conducted breakthrough research on sequencing the cDNA, and identified two cytokine genes, interferon-beta and interleukin-2.[1][2] These advances helped characterize various cytokines and discover a new family of transcription factors, interferon regulatory factors, which play essential roles in the immune system and cancer.[3]

Biography

After graduating in biology from the Tokyo University of Education in 1971, Taniguchi worked at the Laboratory of Biochemistry, University of Naples, Italy from 1972 to 1974. He then went to the University of Zurich, where in 1978 he received his doctorate in molecular biology under the supervision of Charles Weissmann.[3] The same year he started working at the Cancer Institute, Japanese Foundation for Cancer Research. Then for two years he was a visiting associate professor at New York University, and in 1984 was appointed as professor of molecular and cell biology at Osaka University. From 1995 to 2012, he was a professor at the Faculty of Medicine, the University of Tokyo. Since 2012, he has been a professor at the Institute of Industrial Science, the University of Tokyo. He is also an adjunct professor at the New York University School of Medicine.[4]

Honors and awards

Taniguchi received numerous awards, including the Milstein Award,[5] Asahi Prize (1989), Robert Koch Prize (1991), Keio Medical Science Prize (1997), Japan Academy Prize (2000), Pezcoller-AACR International Award for Cancer Research (2006) and Tomizo Yoshida Award of the Japanese Cancer Association (2008).

He was selected as a Person of Cultural Merit by the Government of Japan and as an honorary doctor by the University of Zurich (2007). He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA (since 2003) and an honorary citizen of Aridagawa, Wakayama (since 2010).

Editorial activities

He is an editor of the journals Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, eLife and Immunity.[3][4]

See also

• List of members of the National Academy of Sciences (Immunology)

References

1. Taniguchi, T.; Ohno, S.; Fujii-Kuriyama, Y.; Muramatsu, M. (1980). "The nucleotide sequence of human fibroblast interferon cDNA". Gene. 10 (1): 11–15. doi:10.1016/0378-1119(80)90138-9. PMID 6157601.
2. Taniguchi, T.; Guarente, L.; Roberts, T. M.; Kimelman, D.; Douhan j, 3.; Ptashne, M. (1980). "Expression of the human fibroblast interferon gene in Escherichia coli". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 77 (9): 5230–5233. Bibcode:1980PNAS...77.5230T. doi:10.1073/pnas.77.9.5230. PMC 350031. PMID 6159642.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
3. Tadatsugu Taniguchi, Senior editor – Immunology Archived 2013-10-12 at the Wayback Machine. elifesciences.org
4. Biography of Tadatsugu Taniguchi. iis.u-tokyo.ac.jp
5. Tadatsugu Taniguchi. Ph.D. milstein-award.org

External links

• Taniguchi Lab, University of Tokyo