Stanford Professor Awarded Kyoto Prize

The Kyoto prize, Japan's equivalent to the Nobel Prize, has been awarded to Leonard Herzenberg, Ph.D., professor emeritus at Stanford University School of Medicine (Stanford, CA, USA).

Kyoto prizes are awarded annually by the Inamori Foundation (Kyoto, Japan) to individuals or groups worldwide who have contributed significantly to human progress in one of three areas: advanced technology, basic sciences, and arts and philosophy.

Professor Herzenberg won the advanced technology award for developing the fluorescence-activated cell sorter or FACS, which can separate individual living cells from a population of trillions based only on their protein fingerprints. Also known as flow cytometry, the technology separates cells according to fluorescent tags attached to their surface. Researchers can couple the tags to antibodies that attach to proteins found only in certain cell types. The sorter is then able to pluck out rare immune stem cells for further study, or identify populations of cells in certain diseases.

The FACS technology jump-started modern immunology, stem cell research, and proteomics. It made invaluable contributions to clinical care, including treatment of diseases such as cancer, AIDS, and other infectious diseases.

"The FACS is one of the most important devices ever developed,” said Philip Pizzo, M.D., dean of Stanford's School of Medicine. "In the early 1980s it provided fundamental insights into the impact of HIV on the immune system and it has been a valuable tool for diagnosing, monitoring, and treating HIV/AIDS, cancer and infectious diseases. Professor Herzenberg is truly one of the leading innovators in human biology of the 20th century.”



Related Links:
Stanford University School of Medicine
Inamori Foundation