Dr. Susumu Tonegawa
Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience
Director, RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics
Principal Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Principal Investigator, Tonegawa Lab
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Tonegawa Laboratory
43 Vassar Street, Cambridge, MA 02139
Short Biography
Susumu Tonegawa received his Ph.D. from UCSD. He then undertook postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute in San Diego, before working at the Basel Institute for Immunology in Basel, Switzerland, where he performed his landmark immunology experiments. Tonegawa won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987 for “his discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity.” He has since continued to make important contributions but in an entirely different field: neuroscience.
Using advanced techniques of gene manipulation, Tonegawa is now unraveling the molecular, cellular and neural circuit mechanisms that underlie learning and memory. His studies have broad implications for psychiatric and neurologic diseases. Tonegawa is currently the Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the Director of the RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at MIT. He is also an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Additional Information
Department of Biology, University of California, San Diego 9/1963 – 8/1968. Ph.D.
Department of Biology, University of California, San Diego 9/1968 – 4/1969, Laboratory of Dr. Hayashi
The Salk Institute, San Diego, California 5/1969 – 12/1970, Laboratory of Dr. Dulbecco
Director, RIKEN-MIT Center for Neural Circuit Genetics at MIT 4/1/08 – present
Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience 5/1/02 – present
Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator 2/88 – 3/09; 4/2013 – present
Director, RIKEN Brain Science Institute 4/1/09 – 6/30/2017
Professor of Biology, Center for Cancer Research and Department of Biology, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 9/1/81 – present
Director, RIKEN-MIT Neuroscience Research Center 10/98 – 4/08
Director, the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory 5/1/02 – 12/31/06
Whitehead Professor of Biology and Neuroscience 4/1/99 – 4/30/02
Director, MIT Center for Learning and Memory 4/1/94 – 4/30/02
Amgen Professor of Biology and Neuroscience 5/1/93 – 6/30/99
Member, Basel Institute for Immunology, Basel, Switzerland 1/71 – 8/81
Teaching Assistant, Department of Biology, University of California, San Diego, California 9/64 – 6/68
Research Assistant, Department of Biology, University of California, San Diego, California 9/63 – 6/64
Honorary Member, American Association of Immunologists
Honorary Member, Scandinavian Society for Immunology
Honorary Member, Japanese Biochemical Society
Member, American Association for the Advancement of Science
Member, U.S. Society for Neuroscience
Member, Advisory Council, 50th Anniversary of the Fulbright Program
Member, External Steering Committee, UCLA Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics Research Group
Member, Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
Member, Royal Academy of Morocco, Hassan II Academy of Sciences and Technology
Member, Board of Scientific Governors, The Scripps Research Institute
Member, Board of Governors, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology
Member, Jury, Antonio Champalimaud Vision Award
Special Advisor, RIKEN-Brain Science Institute
Member, Wellcome Trust, Neuroscience and Mental Health Strategy Committee
Member, Scientific Committee, Champalimaud Foundation
Damon Runyon Memorial Fund, Postdoctoral Fellowship 7/69 – 12/70
David Sarnoff RCA Scholarship 4/62 – 3/63
2009 Honorary Degree, City University of Hong Kong
2006 Honorary Degree, University of Alcala, Madrid
2006 Honorary Degree, University of Massachusetts Lowell
2004 Honorary Degree, Kyoto University, Kyoto Japan
1986 Honorary Degree, Doctor of Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois
Neuron (2000 – present)
Molecular Neurobiology (1997 – present)
Physiological Genomics (1998 – 2006) Immunity (1994 – 2000)
Immunological Reviews (1995 – 1998)
Current Opinion in Immunology (1992 – 1998)
International Journal of Immunology (1988 – 1998)
2010 David M. Bonner Lifetime Achievement Award, UCSD
2008 University College London (UCL) Prize Lecturer in Clinical Science
2007 Gold Medal, Spanish National Research Council, Cajal Institute (CSIC), Madrid
2007 RIKEN Fellow, Saitama, Japan
2002 Presidential Lecturer, Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting
2002 Professorship, Picower Foundation
1999 Professorship, Whitehead Family Funds
1999 1999 Mike Hogg Award, the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center
1994 Honorary member of the Polish Academy of Medicine and awarded the Golden Medal Medicus Magnus
1994 Professorship, Amgen, Inc.
1991 Order of the Southern Cross, presented by Fernando Collor de Melo, President of Brazil, Sao Paolo, Brazil
1989 Rabbi Shai Shacknai Memorial Prize in Immunology and Cancer Research, Jerusalem, Israel
1989 Distinguished Investigator Award of American College of Rheumatology, Atlanta, U.S.A.
1988 Kihara Prize of Japanese Society for Genetics, Kyoto, Japan
1987 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, Stockholm, Sweden
1987 Albert and Mary Lasker Award (Basic Research), New York City
1986 Foreign Associate, National Academy of Sciences of the United States
1986 Robert Koch Prize of the Robert Koch Foundation, Bonn, West Germany
1986 Bristol-Myers Award for Distinguished Achievement in Cancer Research, New York, U.S.A.
1984 Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences
1984 Order of Culture “Bunkakunsho” from the Emperor of Japan
1983 Person of Cultural Merit “Bunkakorosha” of the Japanese Government
1983 Gairdner Foundation International Awards of the Gairdner Foundation, Toronto, Canada
1983 The V.D. Mattia Award of the Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, Nutley, U.S.A.
1982 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize of Columbia University, New York, U.S.A.
1982 Asahi Prize of Asahi – Shimbun (Asahi Press), Tokyo, Japan
1981 Avery Landsteiner Prize of the Gesselshat fur Immunologie, West Germany
1981 Genetics Grand Prize of Genetics Promotion Foundation, Japan
1980 Warren Triennial Prize of the Massachusetts General Hospital, U.S.A.
1978 The Cloetta Prize of Foundation Professor Dr. Max Cloetta, Switzerland