Akira Endo (biochemist)

Dr Akira Endo (遠藤 章) is a Japanese biochemist whose work on fungi and cholesterol led to the development of the highly successful class of statin drugs. He was awarded the 22nd Japan Prize (together with climatologist John T. Houghton) in 2006 for his achievements.

Biography
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 BA at Tohoku University (Faculty of Agriculture) in Sendai in 1957 and a PhD in biochemistry at the same university in 1966. From 1957 to 1978 he worked as a research fellow at chemical company Sankyo Co.; initially he worked on fungal enzymes for processing fruit juice. Successful discoveries in this field gained him the credit to spend two years at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine as a research associate 1966-1968), working on cholesterol.

His most important work in the 1970s was on fungal metabolites and their influence on cholesterol synthesis. He hypothesised that fungi used chemicals to ward off parasitic organisms by inhibiting cholesterol synthesis, as this is essential for the manufacture of ergosterol, a cell wall component. 6,000 compounds were studied, of which three metabolites from Penicillium citrinum showed an effect. One of them, mevastatin (ML-236B), was the first member of the statin class of drugs. These studies led to the development of other statins and discovery into the metabolism of cholesterol.

He was an associate professor and later a full professor (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.

Recognition
He was awarded several other prizes during his career:
 * Young Investigator Award in agricultural chemistry (Japan), 1966
 * Heinrich Wieland Prize for the discovery of the HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors (West Germany), 1987
 * Toray Science and Technology Prize (Japan), 1988
 * Warren Alpert Foundation Prize (Harvard Medical School, U.S.A), 2000

Apart from the recognition, Endo never derived financial benefit from his discovery, despite the fact that statins are amongst the most widely-prescribed medications.