Japanese molecular biologists

Reiji Okazaki (岡崎 令治, Okazaki Reiji, October 8, 1930 – August 1, 1975) was a pioneer Japanese molecular biologist, known for his research on DNA replication and especially for describing the role of Okazaki fragments along with his wife Tsuneko.

Masatoshi Nei (根井正利, Nei Masatoshi) (January 2, 1931-May 2023) was a Japanese-born American evolutionary biologist currently affiliated with the Department of Biology at Temple University as a Carnell Professor. He was, until recently, Evan Pugh Professor of Biology at Pennsylvania State University and Director of the Institute of Molecular Evolutionary Genetics; he was there from 1990 to 2015.

Tsuneko Okazaki (岡崎 恒子, Okazaki Tsuneko, born June 7, 1933) is a Japanese pioneer of molecular biology known for her work on DNA replication and specifically for discovering Okazaki fragments, along with her husband Reiji. Dr. Tsuneko Okazaki has continued to be involved in academia, contributing to more advancements in DNA research.

Kazutoshi Mori (森 和俊, Mori Kazutoshi, born 1958) is a Japanese molecular biologist known for research on unfolded protein response. He is a professor of Biophysics at the Graduate School of Science, Kyoto University, and shared the 2014 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award with Peter Walter for discoveries concerning the unfolded protein response — an intracellular quality control system that detects harmful misfolded proteins in the endoplasmic reticulum and signals the nucleus to carry out corrective measures.

Takashi Gojobori (五條堀 孝, Gojobori Takashi, born October 24, 1951, Fukuoka) is a Japanese molecular biologist, Vice-Director of the National Institute of Genetics (NIG) and Distinguished Professor at Center for Information Biology and DNA Data Bank of Japan (DDBJ) in NIG, Mishima, Japan. He has also been co-appointed as the Special Research Consultant of the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), as a Visiting Professor of Keio University, University of Tokyo, and Tokyo Institute of Technology and as a Visiting Research Director of RIKEN.

Yasutomi Nishizuka, MJA, ForMemRS (西塚 泰美, Nishizuka Yasutomi, July 12, 1932 – November 4, 2004) was a prominent Japanese biochemist and made important contributions to the understanding of molecular mechanism of signal transduction across the cell membrane. In 1977, he discovered protein kinase C, which plays significant roles in a variety of intracellular signal transduction processes.

Susumu Tonegawa (利根川 進, Tonegawa Susumu, born September 5, 1939) is a Japanese scientist who was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987, for his discovery of the genetic mechanism that produces antibody diversity. Although he won the Nobel Prize for his work in immunology, Tonegawa is a molecular biologist by training and he again changed fields following his Nobel Prize win; he now studies neuroscience, examining the molecular, cellular and neuronal basis of memory formation and retrieval.

Motoo Kimura (木村 資生, Kimura Motō) (November 13, 1924 – November 13, 1994) was a Japanese biologist best known for introducing the neutral theory of molecular evolution in 1968. He became one of the most influential theoretical population geneticists. He is remembered in genetics for his innovative use of diffusion equations to calculate the probability of fixation of beneficial, deleterious, or neutral alleles. Combining theoretical population genetics with molecular evolution data, he also developed the neutral theory of molecular evolution in which genetic drift is the main force changing allele frequencies. James F. Crow, himself a renowned population geneticist, considered Kimura to be one of the two greatest evolutionary geneticists, along with Gustave Malécot, after the great trio of the modern synthesis, Ronald Fisher, J. B. S. Haldane, and Sewall Wright.

Masashi Yanagisawa (柳沢 正史, Yanagisawa Masashi, born May 25, 1960) is a Japanese molecular biologist and physician, famous for his discovery of the hormone endothelin and the neuropeptide orexin, the absence of which is the cause of narcolepsy. He is currently the Director of the International Institute for Integrative Sleep Medicine, University of Tsukuba, and an adjunct professor at the Department of Molecular genetics, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Michiei Oto is a molecular biologist and an expert on the application of biotechnology to genetic testing. He was the first to propose gene literacy education.