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Tasuku Honjo wins Nobel in medicine

03 October 2018 | News

Honjo, a 76-year-old professor at Kyoto University, won the prize with U.S. national James Allison.

Japanese scientist Tasuku Honjo has been awarded this year’s Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, for his discovery of a protein that contributed to the development of an immunotherapeutic drug against cancer.

Honjo, a 76-year-old professor at Kyoto University, won the prize with U.S. national James Allison. Honjo opened a pathway for a new cancer treatment by discovering the PD-1 protein, which is responsible for suppressing immune response.

Following the discovery of the protein in 1992, Honjo presented his research in 2002 showing that a drug that prevents the unification of cancer cells and that the PD-1 protein is effective against cancer in animals.

In 2006, his research was tested in a clinical trial before Opdivo was finally approved in Japan, in July 2014, and subsequently in the United States and Europe. Their work led to a fourth class of treatment alongside surgery, chemotherapy and radiation that harnesses the immune system.

The pair will receive their Nobel from King Carl XVI Gustaf at a formal ceremony in Stockholm on Dec. 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of Alfred Nobel who created the prizes in his last will and testament.

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