Native name 長田 重一 Role Molecular Biologist Name Shigekazu Nagata | Doctoral advisor Yoshito Kajiro Nationality Japanese Alma mater University of Tokyo | |
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Institutions Kyoto University
Osaka University
Osaka Bioscience Institute
University of Tokyo
University of Zurich Known for Interferon
Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor
Fas ligand
Fas receptor
Apoptosis Notable awards Robert Koch Prize
Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy
Asahi Prize (1997) Awards Keio Medical Science Prize, Robert Koch Prize Fields Molecular biology, Immunology, Oncology Institution Kyoto University, Osaka University, Osaka Bioscience Institute, University of Tokyo, University of Zurich | ||
Shigekazu Nagata (長田 重一, Nagata Shigekazu, born 1949) is a Japanese biochemist, best known for research on apoptosis, the process of programmed cell death occurring in multi-cellular organisms.
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Contribution
Nagata identified Interferon in 1980 and Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor in 1986. He also identified a death factor (Fas receptor) in 1991 and its ligand (Fas ligand) in 1993, and elucidated their physiological and pathological roles in apoptosis.
Biography
Nagata was born in Kanazawa, Japan, and completed his PhD under the supervision of Yoshito Kaziro at the University of Tokyo in 1977.
Nagata served as a postdoctoral fellow under Charles Weissmann at University of Zurich, where he worked on sequencing the cDNA of Interferon gene between 1977 and 1981. He was Assistant professor at the Institute of Medical Science, the University of Tokyo between 1982 and 1987, and Head of Department of molecular biology at Osaka Bioscience Institute between 1987 and 1998, where Osamu Hayaishi served as President at that time.
Nagata became Professor of genetics at Osaka University Medical School between 1995 and 2007, before being appointed as Professor of medical chemistry at the Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University in 2007.
After retiring from Kyoto University and becoming Professor Emeritus in 2015, Nagata has been Professor of biochemistry and immunology at the Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University.