Hiroshi Kataoka Explained

Hiroshi Kataoka
Birth Place:Okayama, Japan
Nationality:Japanese
Field:Entomology
Work Institution:The University of Tokyo
Alma Mater:The University of Tokyo
Doctoral Advisor:Akinori Suzuki
Known For:insect hormone, insect steroidogenesis

Hiroshi Kataoka (ja: 片岡 宏誌) is a Japanese entomologist and a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, Japan.

He has conducted research on insect hormones and the prothoracic gland, which secretes ecdysteroids. His achievements garnered international attention, with several commentary articles published in leading journals like Science[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] and several covers in prestigious journals such as the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.[6] [7] [8] [9] His research has also been widely covered by both Japanese and international media.[10] [11] [12] [13]

He was exceptionally skilled in experimental techniques. Before joining the faculty at the University of Tokyo, he managed to purify and identify most of the insect peptide hormones known at the time, including prothoracicotropic hormone (PTTH), allatotropin, allatostatin, eclosion hormone, and diuretic hormone. Notably, his two mentors received the prestigious Japanese Academy Prize (日本学士院賞) for their work on the purification and identification of PTTH, a milestone that had eluded many predecessors.[14]

Around October 2001, he established the Laboratory of Molecular Recognition at the University of Tokyo's new Kashiwa campus as a professor. He supported the young associate professor Kazushige Touhara while an article in Nature reviewed the hiring of young faculty members.[15] As a result, he established a highly productive environment. Of the 20 initial members at the Kashiwa Campus start-up, three were awarded the Japan Academy Medal—Kazushige Touhara,[16] [17] Yuki Oka,[18] [19] and Naoki Yamanaka[20] —Japan’s highest honor for young researchers to date. He also played a crucial role as a head of the graduate school system and in the establishment of the Kashiwa campus.

His research was conducted in collaboration with numerous researchers from Japanese and international institutions, including Nagoya University, the National Institute of Agrobiological Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Zhejiang University, the Slovak Academy of Sciences, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Washington, and Paris Diderot University.

Early life

Born in Mabi-cho, Kibi-gun (now Kurashiki City), Okayama, Japan.[21] As a child, he was known as the insect boy. Hironori Ishizaki, one of his mentors, noted in his autobiography that Kataoka had both the temperament to embrace difficult challenges and a boldness.[22]

Education

Kataoka graduated from the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Tokyo, in March 1981. He earned his PhD from the Graduate School of Agricultural Chemistry at the same university in March 1986. He then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Zoecon Research Institute, Sandoz Crop Protection, in Palo Alto, California, starting in April 1986. In July 1988, he joined the Faculty of Agriculture, The University of Tokyo, as an assistant professor. He was promoted to associate professor at the Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, in June 1994, and became a professor at the Department of Integrated Biosciences, Graduate School of Frontier Sciences, The University of Tokyo, in April 1999.[23]

Awards and honors

Key papers

Other selected publications

Notes and References

  1. Guyer . Ruth Levy . 1990-03-16 . This Week in Science . Science . en . 247 . 4948 . 1271 . 10.1126/science.1990.247.4948.twis . 0036-8075.
  2. Truman . James W. . 2006-06-13 . Steroid hormone secretion in insects comes of age . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . en . 103 . 24 . 8909–8910 . 10.1073/pnas.0603252103 . free . 0027-8424 . 1482536 . 16757560. 2006PNAS..103.8909T .
  3. Web site: From Neverland: insights into steroid hormone synthesis . 2024-07-28 . Development (2006) 133 (13): e1305.
  4. 2007-06-01 . Research highlights: Silkworm coloration gene . Nature Genetics . en . 39 . 6 . 713 . 10.1038/ng0607-713 . 1061-4036. free .
  5. 2012-09-28 . This Week in Science: Limiting Your Options . Science . en . 337 . 6102 . 1580–1582 . 10.1126/science.2012.337.6102.twis . 0036-8075.
  6. Web site: Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications Vol 337, Issue 1, Pages 1-412 (11 November 2005) ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier . 2024-07-26 . www.sciencedirect.com . en-us.
  7. Web site: Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications Vol 341, Issue 1, Pages 1-278 (3 March 2006) ScienceDirect.com by Elsevier . 2024-07-26 . www.sciencedirect.com . en-us.
  8. Web site: 2006-06-30 . PNAS, June 6, 2006, vol. 103, no. 23 . 2024-07-26 . www.pnas.org.
  9. Web site: 2007-05-21 . PNAS, May 22, 2007, vol. 104, no. 21 . 2024-07-27 . www.pnas.org.
  10. Web site: 農業生物資源研究所 - プレスリリース - 昆虫の脱皮に新たなメカニズムを発見 - . 2024-07-31 . www.naro.affrc.go.jp . ja.
  11. Web site: 2007-05-09 . The Big Picture . 2024-07-30 . BBC news.
  12. Web site: Evolving Dependence . 2024-07-30 . The Scientist Magazine® . en.
  13. Web site: サイエンス誌に載った日本人研究者2012 . 2024-07-25 . アスカコーポレーション . 55 . ja.
  14. Web site: 『かつて絵描きだった』石崎 宏矩 . 2024-08-02 . サイエンティスト・ライブラリー JT生命誌研究館 . ja.
  15. Saegusa . Asako . 1998-04-02 . Tokyo's plan for new campus under threat . Nature . en . 392 . 6675 . 429 . 10.1038/32991 . 1998Natur.392..429S . 0028-0836.
  16. Web site: 日本学士院学術奨励賞の受賞者決定について 日本学士院 . 2024-08-01 . www.japan-acad.go.jp . ja.
  17. 2005-10-05 . Making the paper - Kazushige Touhara . Nature . en . 437 . 7060 . xiii . 10.1038/7060xiiia . 1476-4687.
  18. Web site: 日本学士院学術奨励賞の受賞者決定について 日本学士院 . 2024-08-01 . www.japan-acad.go.jp . ja.
  19. 岡勇輝 . 2019 . 私のメンター 東原和成―化学感覚の真理を嗅ぎ分ける探究者 . 実験医学 . ja . 37 . 4 . 978-4-7581-2517-8.
  20. Web site: 日本学士院学術奨励賞の受賞者決定について 日本学士院 . 2024-08-01 . www.japan-acad.go.jp . ja.
  21. Web site: 倉敷出身 片岡さんに日本農学賞 元東大教授、昆虫の成育 謎に迫る：山陽新聞デジタル｜さんデジ . 2024-08-02 . 山陽新聞デジタル｜さんデジ . ja.
  22. Book: Ishizaki, Hironori . サナギから蛾へ . October 2006 . 名古屋大学出版会 . 2024-08-02 . ja . 978-4815805456.
  23. Web site: 片岡 宏誌｜教授｜生命科学研究系｜東京大学大学院新領域創成科学研究科 . 2024-08-02 . www.k.u-tokyo.ac.jp . ja.

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