Background
Endo was born on a farm in Northern Japan and had an interest in fungi even when young, being an admirer of Alexander Fleming.
遠藤 章
biochemist university professor
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 Bachelor at Tohoku University (Faculty of Agriculture) in Sendai in 1957 and a Doctor of Philosophy in biochemistry at the same university in 1966.
He was awarded the 22nd Japan Prize in 2006 and the Lasker Award in 2008. From 1957 to 1978 he worked as a research fellow at chemical company Sankyo Company Initially he worked on fungal enzymes for processing fruit juice.
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.
Endo studied 6,000 compounds, of which three extrolites from a Penicillium mold showed an effect. Soon after, lovastatin, the first commercial statin, was found in the Aspergillus mold.
Although mevastatin never became an approved drug, the mevastatin derivative pravastatin did.
He was an associate professor and later a full professor (since 1986) at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology between 1979 and 1997, and after his official retirement became the president of Biopharm Research Laboratories. He was awarded several other prizes during his career:
Young Investigator Award in agricultural chemistry (Japan), 1966
Toray Science and Technology Prize (Japan), 1988
Warren Alpert Foundation Prize (Harvard Medical School, United States of America), 2000
Massry Prize from the Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California in 2006
Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame, Alexandria, Virginia 2012
Apart from the recognition, Endo never derived financial benefit from his discovery, despite the fact that statins are amongst the most widely prescribed medications.
National Academy of Sciences]
One of them, mevastatin, was the first member of the statin class of drugs.