Hidesaburo Hanafusa

Biography

Hidesaburo Hanafusa ( 花房 秀三郎 , Hanafusa Hidesaburō ; December 1, 1929 – March 15, 2009) was a Japanese virologist . He shared the 1982 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research with Harold E. Varmus and J. Michael Bishop for demonstrating how RNA tumor viruses cause cancer, and elucidating their role in combining, rescuing and maintaining oncogenes in the viral genome. [ 1 ] Hidesaburo Hanafusa was born on December 1, 1929, in Hyogo Prefecture . [ 2 ] He received his Ph.D. in biochemistry in 1960 from Osaka University , where he also met his future wife, Teruko. [ 2 ] After his research at the University of California, Berkeley , and in France, [ 3 ] he was appointed as professor of molecular oncology at the Rockefeller University in 1973, and returned to Japan in 1998, becoming director at the Osaka Bioscience Institute . [ 2 ] He was a foreign associate of the US National Academy of Sciences and a member of the Japan Academy . [ 4 ] He died on March 15, 2009, of liver cancer , at the age of 79. [ 4 ] [ 5 ] Fields: Oncology, Virology Education: Osaka University PhD

About the Lasker Award

The Lasker Awards have been awarded annually since 1946 to living persons who have made major contributions to medical science or who have performed public service on behalf of medicine. They are administered by the Lasker Foundation, founded by advertising pioneer Albert Lasker and his wife Mary Woodard Lasker (a medical research activist). The awards are sometimes referred to as "America's Nobels."

Quick Facts

• Award: Lasker Award - Basic Medical Research
• Added: 2026-02-07
• Source: Wikipedia
• Established: 1946
• Presented by: Lasker Foundation

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