Susumu Tonegawa
5 September 1939 – 11 July 2026
Susumu Tonegawa (born 1939) is a Japanese molecular biologist and neuroscientist who received the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the genetic mechanism that produces antibody diversity. After his immunology work at the Basel Institute for Immunology, he moved to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1981 and later turned to the neuroscience of learning and memory.
Lived at the same time
Well-documented people whose lives overlapped with Susumu Tonegawa.
- Ada Yonath (1939–2026) Overlapped 87 years →
- Adonis (1930–present) Overlapped 87 years →
- Ali Khamenei (1939–2026) Overlapped 87 years →
- Arvo Pärt (1935–present) Overlapped 87 years →
- Asha Bhosle (1933–2026) Overlapped 87 years →
- Buzz Aldrin (1930–present) Overlapped 87 years →
Life events
Born in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, Japan.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCompleted a bachelor's degree in chemistry at Kyoto University.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgCompleted doctoral studies in molecular biology at UC San Diego, followed by postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMoved to Switzerland to work at the Basel Institute for Immunology, where he carried out his research on antibody genes.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgPublished experiments showing that antibody diversity arises from the rearrangement of gene segments in developing immune cells.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgMoved to the United States to join the MIT faculty, where he later shifted his research to neuroscience.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgReceived the 1987 Nobel Prize, unshared, for the discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgLed the new MIT centre devoted to the neuroscience of learning and memory, later the Picower Institute.
Source: en.wikipedia.orgTook on the directorship of the RIKEN Brain Science Institute in Japan while retaining his MIT position.
Source: en.wikipedia.org