The Nobel Prize committee praised the discoveries and their \u201cpossibilities to increase the immune response against pathogenic microorganism through vaccination \u2013 and also to improve inhibition of unwanted immune reactions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tonegawa shifted his interests in later years to neuroscience, during which he studied learning processes and how memories are stored, recalled, reassigned and deleted.<\/p>\n
\u201cSusumu Tonegawa\u2019s life and work reflect the transformative impact of discovery at its highest level. As UC San Diego\u2019s first alumnus to receive a Nobel Prize, he helped establish a legacy of scientific excellence that continues to inspire our campus and the broader research community, \u201c said Chancellor Pradeep K. Khosla. \u201cHis groundbreaking contributions to immunology and neuroscience advanced our understanding of some of biology\u2019s most fundamental processes and remain a source of pride for UC San Diego.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first Japanese scientist to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Tonegawa was later joined by fellow UC San Diego School of Biological Sciences alumni Nobel laureates Bruce Beutler<\/a> (2011), former graduate student Venkatraman Ramakrishnan<\/a> (2009) and, most recently, Fred Ramsdell<\/a> (2025).<\/p>\n \u201cSusumu Tonegawa embodied the curiosity, originality and intellectual ambition that define great science,\u201d said School of Biological Sciences Dean Kit Pogliano. \u201cFrom his doctoral studies of bacteriophage gene regulation at UC San Diego, to his Nobel Prize-winning discovery of antibody-gene rearrangement, to his pioneering identification of the neural ensembles that encode memories, he repeatedly revealed hidden mechanisms underlying life\u2019s remarkable complexity. We are proud that UC San Diego and the larger UC San Diego scientific community were part of his scientific journey, and deeply grateful for the example he leaves to generations of scientists.\u201d<\/p>\n Born in Nagoya, Japan, in 1939, Tonegawa studied at Kyoto University, and after graduation joined the university\u2019s Institute for Virus Research. He was accepted to UC San Diego Biology\u2019s new graduate program in molecular biology, where he studied bacteriophage gene transcription in the lab of Professor Masaki Hayashi. He earned his PhD in 1968, after which he took a postdoctoral position with Professor Renato Dulbecco at the Salk Institute. After working at the Basel Institute for Immunology, Tonegawa was recruited to MIT in 1981, where he served as a faculty member for more than 40 years.<\/p>\n \u201cFew scientists have reshaped our understanding of biology as profoundly as Susumu Tonegawa,\u201d said Myriam Heiman, director of MIT\u2019s Picower Institute, where Tonegawa served as founding director, in a release issued by MIT. \u201cHis intellectual fearlessness, extraordinary creativity and relentless pursuit of fundamental questions opened entirely new frontiers in both immunology and neuroscience. His influence on science and on the people who had the privilege of working alongside him is immeasurable.\u201d<\/p>\n Read more news about: Alumni<\/a>, <\/p>\n