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2009.10.27

Shizuo AKIRA was named a Person of Cultural Merit by the Japanese Government

On October 27, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) of Japan announced this year's recipients of the Order of Culture and Persons of Cultural Merit. Prof. Shizuo Akira, Director of IFReC was named a Person of Cultural Merit with 14 others.

MEXT commented that Prof. Akira was awarded because his efforts to reveal the importance of innate immunity by analysis of functions of Toll-like Receptors (TLRs) and other molecules have been highly evaluated.

It is the first time for the working scientist of Osaka University to be honored as a Person of Cultural Merit, since Prof. Shigekazu Nagata (Graduate School of Medicine at that time) got it in 2001. In this award, Dr. Tadatsugu Taniguchi (Immunology Lab., Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo) who is a former Professor of Osaka University was also chosen as a Person of Cultural Merit.

2009-1027_Akira.jpg Photo: Dr. Akira was interviewed by reporters (Click the image to enlarge.).


- Webpage of AKIRA Lab is here.