Susumu Tonegawa, 1st Japanese Nobel Medicine Laureate, Dies at 86

Tokyo, July 16 (Jiji Press)--Susumu Tonegawa, the first Japanese laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, died on Saturday at the age of 86, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to which he belonged, announced Thursday.

Tonegawa, from the central Japan city of Nagoya, received the Nobel prize in 1987 for clarifying how genes produce various antibodies that play an important role in immunity.

He later made a lot of achievements in research on brain science, such as unraveling how the brain stores memories.

While concentrating on his research in the United States for many years, Tonegawa also served as head of Japan's Riken Center for Brain Science.

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