Akira Endo (biochemist)
| Akira Endo 遠藤章 |
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Dr. Endo
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| Born |
November 14, 1933 Higashiyuri (present-day Yurihonjō, Akita) |
| Fields | Biochemistry |
| Institutions | Sankyo Co., Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology |
| Alma mater | Tohoku University, |
| Known for | discovering the first statin (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor), paving the way for statin drug development |
| Notable awards |
Heinrich Wieland Prize (1987) Japan Prize (2006) Massry Prize (2006) Lasker Award (2008) National Inventors Hall of Fame 2012) Canada Gairdner International Award (2017) |
Akira Endo (遠藤 章 Endō Akira?, born 14 November 1933) is a Japanese biochemist whose research into the relationship between fungi and cholesterol biosynthesis led to the development of statin drugs, which are some of the best-selling pharmaceuticals in history.
He received the Japan Prize in 2006, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award in 2008, the Canada Gairdner International Award in 2017.
Endo was born on a farm in Northern Japan and had an interest in fungi even when young, being an admirer of Alexander Fleming. He obtained a BA at Tohoku University (Faculty of Agriculture) in Sendai in 1957 and a PhD in biochemistry at the same university in 1966. From 1957 to 1978 he worked as a research fellow at chemical company Sankyo Co.; initially he worked on fungal enzymes for processing fruit juice. Successful discoveries in this field gained him the credit to spend two years at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine as a research associate (1966-1968), working on cholesterol.
His most important work in the 1970s was on fungal extrolites and their influence on cholesterol synthesis. He hypothesised that fungi used chemicals to ward off parasitic organisms by inhibiting cholesterol synthesis. The cell membranes of fungi contain ergosterol in place of cholesterol, allowing them to produce compounds that inhibit cholesterol.
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