Research Area: cell death, scramblase, flippase

Location: Osaka, Japan

Dr Nagata obtained a PhD in 1977 from the University of Tokyo and did post-doctoral research in the laboratory of Prof. Charles Weissmann (University of Zürich), where he identified human interferon-alpha cDNA. In 1982, he returned to the University of Tokyo as an assistant professor and identified G-CSF cDNA. In 1987, he was appointed Department Head of Osaka Bioscience Institute, where he found the death factor (Fas ligand) and studied the signal transduction in apoptosis. From 1995 to 2007, he was a professor at Osaka University Medical School and elucidated how macrophages engulf the apoptotic cells. In 2007, he moved to Kyoto University as a professor at the Graduate School of Medicine and identified flippase and scramblases that regulate the distribution of phospholipids at the plasma membranes. Since 2015, he has been a professor at the Immunology Frontier Research Center, Osaka University. Dr Nagata was the President of the Japanese Biochemical Society and Japanese Society of Molecular Biology and is currently President of the Human Frontier Science Program (Strasbourg). He obtained an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Zürich and is a Professor Emeritus at Osaka University and Kyoto University. His awards include Emil von Behring Prize (Germany), the Robert Koch Award (Germany), Prix Lacassagne (France), Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine (Hungary), Keio Medical Science Prize (Japan), and CDD Award (Springer). He is a member of the Japan Academy and a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of USA. The Japanese Government recognises him as a Person of Cultural Merit.

Webpage: http://biochemi.ifrec.osaka-u.ac.jp/