Shigekazu Nagata

is a Japanese biochemist, best known for research on apoptosis, the process of programmed cell death occurring in multi-cellular organisms.

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.

Honors and awards 1994: Emil von Boehring Prize, Marburg University 1995: Robert Koch Prize 1996: Prix Lacassagne, French Cancer League 1998: Asahi Prize 2000: Imperial Prize of the Japan Academy 2001: Person of Cultural Merit 2004: Cell Death Society Prize, International Cell Death Society 2010: Member of the Japan Academy 2012: Honorary Doctorate, University of Zurich 2012: Tomizo Yoshida Award, Japanese Cancer Association and Tomizo Yoshida Memorial Hall 2012: Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine 2013: Keio Medical Science Prize 2015: Foreign Associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences 2016: Asian Scientist 100, Asian Scientist