Record

EC - Certificates of election and candidature for Fellowship of the Royal Society
- 1990 - Certificates of Election 1990

RefNo	EC/1990/42
Level	Item
Title	Nishizuka, Yasutomi: certificate of election to the Royal Society
Date	1988
Description	Certificate of Candidate for Election to Foreign Membership. Citation typed
Citation	Yasutomi Nishizuka's great contribution to a general understanding of cell regulation has been the discovery of protein kinase C and the recognition that the activity of this enzyme is regulated by 1,2-diacylglycerol, the first known lipid second messenger molecule, and by many tumour promoters. In the late 1970s, Nishizuka and his colleagues discovered protein kinase C, a novel enzyme that required both Ca2+ and phospholipid for full activity. Whilst others assumed that this enzyme was regulated by Ca2+, a known intracellular meddenger, the Kobe group obtained evidence that protein kinase C could be activated by small quantities of 1,2-diacylglycerol. In a startlingly bold proposal in 1979, they suggested that this enzyme was normally regulated by the 1,2 diacylglycerol that is liberated during receptor-activated inosital lipid hydrolysis, and thus that the responses of cells to many different receptor-directed stimuli involve synergistic actions of intracellular target proteins for Ca2+ and for protein kinase C. These ideas were validated by elegant experiments in which human platelet responses were evoked by a combination of a membrane-permeant synthetic diacylglycerol and Ca2+ admission by an ionophore. With Castagna, Nishizuka's group then showed that protein kinase C is the major cellular target of phorbol ester tumour promoters such as TPA: it was later shown also to be the target of many other tumour promoters. These agents display an extraordinary range of biological actions, from mimicking the rapid actions of physiological stimuli such as platelet activators through to increasing the yield of carcinogen-initiated skin tumours over a period of many months. Recognition of their mechanism of action has revolutionised the study of tumour promoters and must ultimately lead to fundamental insights into the promotion stage of carcinogenesis. In recent years, Nishizuka's laboratory has played a major role in the demonstration that cells contain a large family of protein kinase C isoenzymes. In particular, he and his colleagues have very beautifully mapped the different neuronal locations of the various isoenzymes in the cerebellar cortex. In summary, the experiments and ideas that have come from Hishizuka's laboratory in Kobe since 1978 have added an extremely important new unifying mechanism to our understanding of many aspects of cell regulation both in normal and malignant cells, and there is no doubt that Nishizuka will continue to be an outstanding contributor to progress in this field for many years to come. Amongst numerous honours, he has been awarded the Japan Academy Prize and the Princess Takamatsu Award for Cancer Research and has been elected to the US National Academy of Sciences.
AccessStatus	Closed

Fellows associated with this archive

Code	PersonName	Dates
NA4174	Nishizuka; Yasutomi (1932 - 2004)	1932 - 2004

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