Kimishige Ishizaka

Ishizaka Kimishige (Jap.石 坂 公 成, born December 3, 1925 in the prefecture of Tokyo) is a Japanese immunologist. He discovered 1966, the immunoglobulin E ( IgE) antibodies, which are of particular importance in allergy.

Ishizaka earned his MD in 1948 degrees in medicine at the University of Tokyo in 1954 and a PhD in immunology. 1951 to 1957 he conducted research at the National Health Research Institute of Japan in the Department of Serology. 1957 to 1959 he conducted research at Caltech and from 1962 to 1970 at the Asthma Clinic and the Asthma Research Institute of the University of Colorado Medical School in Denver. After that, he was an associate professor and in 1979 professor of immunology at Johns Hopkins University. From 1974 he also taught at the University of Kyoto.

In 1973 he was awarded the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize and the Gairdner Foundation International Award ( with his wife Teruko ). 2000 he received the Japan Prize. In addition, he received the Borden Award from the American Association of Medical Colleges, the Passano Award, the medicine price of the Takeda Foundation, the Scientific Achievement Award from the International Association of Allergology, the Asahi Prize ( 1974), the Imperial Prize and the Prize of the Japan Academy of Sciences ( 1974). In 1983 he became a member of the National Academy of Sciences, in addition he is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. In the years 1984/1985 he served as president of the American Association of Immunologists.

He often collaborated with his wife Teruko Ishizaka ( called Terry ) together, which is also a professor of immunology at Johns Hopkins, among others in the discovery of IgE antibodies.

In honor of the couple Ishizaka the day of allergy was introduced in 1995 to commemorate their research achievements and to raise awareness of allergies.