Awards & Winners

Shizuo Akira

Date of Birth 27-January-1953
Place of Birth Osaka Prefecture
(Japan, Honshu, Kansai region)
Nationality
Shizuo Akira, M.D., Ph.D., is a professor at the Department of Host Defense, Osaka University, Japan. He has made ground-breaking discoveries in the field of immunology, most significantly in the area of innate host defense mechanisms. Beside being the world's most-cited scientist, he has also been recognised, in the years 2006 and 2007, as having published the greatest number of ‘Hot Papers’ over the preceding two years. He is the recipient of several international awards, including the Gairdner Foundation International Award, Robert Koch Prize, the Milstein Award, and the William B. Coley Award. Among his greatest discoveries is the demonstration, through the ablation of toll-like receptor s genes, that TLRs recognize a descrete collection of molecules of microbal origin, and later the RNA helicases, RIG-I and MDA5. All molecules belong to the pattern recognition receptors, which detects intruding pathogens and initiates antimicrobial responses in the host.

Awards by Shizuo Akira

Check all the awards nominated and won by Shizuo Akira.

2011


Gairdner Foundation International Award
(For his ground-breaking discovery of Toll like receptors and the array of microbial compounds that they recognize to provide innate resistance to infection.)

2010


Keio Medical Science Prize
(Elucidation of molecular mechanisms of innate immune response for microbes.)