Shosaku Numa

Shosaku Numa (Japanese沼 正 作, Numa Shosaku; born February 7, 1929 in Wakayama Prefecture, † February 15, 1992 ) was a Japanese molecular biologist and biochemist.

Numa studied medicine at Kyoto University, where he graduated in 1952. After graduation, he went in 1956 as a Fulbright Fellow at the Harvard University Medical School ( Department of Biochemistry ). In 1958 he went to the Max Planck Institute in Munich Feodor Lynen, where he focused on enzyme research and the regulation of lipid metabolism. In 1961 he was back at the University of Kyoto ( interrupted in 1963 by a further stay at Lynen in Munich), where he became in 1968 professor in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry.

Numa was a pioneer in the application of molecular biological techniques for the study of receptors ( such as the acetylcholine receptor) and ion channels in nerve cells.

He was a Fellow of the Royal Society (1986) and member of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences ( 1979). 1987/88 he was Harvey Lecturer. In 1987 he received the Otto Warburg Medal.