is a Japanese

molecular biologist Molecular biology is the branch of biology that seeks to understand the molecular basis of biological activity in and between cells, including biomolecular synthesis, modification, mechanisms, and interactions. The study of chemical and physi ...

, known for his discovering the DNA sequence of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR).

Biography

Ishino was born in Kyoto Prefecture, Japan. He received his BS, MS and PhD in 1981, 1983 and 1986, respectively, from

Osaka University , abbreviated as , is a public research university located in Osaka Prefecture, Japan. It is one of Japan's former Imperial Universities and a Designated National University listed as a "Top Type" university in the Top Global University Project. ...

.Yoshizumi Ishino , astrobiology.illinois.edu
From 1987 to 1989, he served as a post-doctoral fellow in Dieter Söll's laboratory at

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. In 2002, he became a professor at

Kyushu University , abbreviated to , is a Japanese national university located in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu. It was the 4th Imperial University in Japan, ranked as 4th in 2020 Times Higher Education Japan University Rankings, one of the top 10 Design ...

. Since October 2013, he has been a member of the

NASA Astrobiology Institute The NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) was established in 1998 by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) "to develop the field of astrobiology and provide a scientific framework for flight missions." In December 2019 the institute ...

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Universit ...

. After completing his PhD, Ishino became senior research scientist at the Bioproducts Development Center of Takara Shuzo. Later in life, he joined BERI (Biomolecular Engineering Research Institute), in which he conducted research on nucleic acids-related enzymes.

Research contribution

Ishino has contributed to the development of

enzymology Enzymes () are proteins that act as biological catalysts by accelerating chemical reactions. The molecules upon which enzymes may act are called substrates, and the enzyme converts the substrates into different molecules known as products. A ...

and

nucleic acids research ''Nucleic Acids Research'' is an open-access peer-reviewed scientific journal published since 1974 by the Oxford University Press. The journal covers research on nucleic acids, such as DNA and RNA, and related work. According to the ''Journal Cit ...

in his life. The "iap" gene in gut microbe ''E. coli'' was sequenced by Ishino and his colleagues in 1987. As the DNA segment used was longer than the gene itself, they accidentally discovered a partial DNA sequence of then-unnamed

CRISPR CRISPR () (an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. These sequences are derived from DNA fragments of bacte ...

in the process, which would eventually become the basis of

CRISPR gene editing CRISPR gene editing (pronounced "crisper") is a genetic engineering technique in molecular biology by which the genomes of living organisms may be modified. It is based on a simplified version of the bacterial CRISPR-Cas9 antiviral defense sys ...

. Ishino was one of the first scientists to have detected CRISPRs in E. coli. In 1990, Ishino began researching DNA replication of micro-organisms in the

Archaea Archaea ( ; singular archaeon ) is a domain of single-celled organisms. These microorganisms lack cell nuclei and are therefore prokaryotes. Archaea were initially classified as bacteria, receiving the name archaebacteria (in the Archaebac ...

domain.

Recognition

* 2017 - AMED Award,

Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development The Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED; ja, 日本医療研究開発機構), created in April 2015, is an independent Japanese medical research and development organization, overseen by the Office of Healthcare Policy of Cab ...

(AMED) * 2018 - JSBBA Award, Japan Society for Bioscience, Biotechnology and Agrochemistry (JSBBA)

Biography

Research contribution

Recognition

References

Further reading