Shosaku Numa

Shosaku Numa
沼 正作
Born	February 7, 1929 Wakayama, Japan
Died	February 15, 1992 Kyoto, Japan
Nationality	Japanese
Alma mater	Kyoto University
Known for	Ion channels
Awards	Heinrich Wieland Prize (1973) Asahi Prize (1982) Japan Academy Prize (1985)
Scientific career
Fields	Neuroscience
Institutions	Kyoto University Max Planck Society Harvard Medical School

Shosaku Numa, ForMemRS (沼 正作, Numa Shousaku, February 7, 1929 – February 15, 1992) was a Japanese neuroscientist known for his pioneer research on neurotransmitters and ion channels, and made outstanding contributions to the understanding of molecular mechanisms of neural signalling.

Biography

Numa was born in Wakayama, Japan and completed his M.D. in 1952 at Kyoto University. He studied at Harvard Medical School with John Lawrence Oncley and worked at the Max Planck Society with Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen, before he became Professor of Medical Chemistry at the Faculty of Medicine, Kyoto University in 1968. He died of colon cancer on February 15, 1992, at the age of 63.

Contributions

Numa and co-workers cloned and sequenced the cDNA and delineated the primary structures of different families of receptors and channels including a neurotransmitter-gated channel (nicotinic acetylcholine receptor), voltage-gated channels (sodium channel and calcium channel), an intracellular membrane channel (calcium-release channel), and a G-protein-coupled receptor (muscarinic acetylcholine receptor).

Recognition

For his great achievements, Numa was awarded numerous honours and awards including, most outstandingly, the Japan Academy Prize in 1985. He was elected as a foreign member of the Royal Society in 1986, as a member of the German Academy of Natural Scientists Leopoldina in 1990, and as a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America in 1991. He was selected as a Person of Cultural Merit by the Government of Japan in 1991.