Biography

Professor Ōmura

Professor Satoshi Ōmura is widely recognized as a world leader in the field of bioorganic chemistry, particularly for the discovery, development, biosynthesis and manipulation of useful chemicals derived from naturally-occurring microorganisms.

Academic achievements

Born in Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan, in 1935, Professor Ōmura received a Masters of Science degree from Tokyo Science University in 1963, followed in 1968 by a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Tokyo. Two years later, he received another Ph.D. – this time in Chemistry – from the Tokyo University of Science.

Research positions and appointments

After working for two years as a Research Associate at Yamanashi University, in 1965, Prof. Ōmura began his career-long association with the world-renowned Kitasato Institute in Tokyo. Starting initially as a researcher and occupying various posts over the years, the Professor’s career culminated in his almost 2-decade long appointment as President of the Institute (1990~ 2008). He is currently a special coordinator of Research Project for Drug Discovery from Natural Products in the Kitasato Institute for Life Sciences, Kitasato University and is Max Tishler Professor of Chemistry at Wesleyan University (USA), a post he has held since its inception in 2005.

Research interests

Throughout his career, Professor Ōmura has performed extensive, comprehensive and innovative research focused on the chemistry and biology of microbial metabolites as well as macrolide antibiotics. Prof Ōmura has devised several new methods of isolating and culturing microorganisms, and established many original methods of screening for natural bioactive substances. His work has resulted in the discovery of more than 400 novel bioactive compounds including staurosporine (the first of the indocarbazole compounds and a protein kinase-specific inhibitor, forerunner of several of today’s innovative anti-cancer agents), lactacysin (a proteasome inhibitor), cerulenin (the first fatty acid and polyketide biosynthesis inhibitor that has facilitated clarification of fatty acid biosynthesis), lactacystin (the first microbial proteasome inhibitor which, together with various analogues, is in clinical trials as anticancer agents), herbimycin (an Hsp90 inhibitor, the analogues are also in clinical trials as a possible anticancer agent), madindoline (which selectively inhibits growth of IL-6 dependent MH60 cells), atpenin A5 (an inhibitor of nematode and mammalian mitochondrial complex II), guadinomine (an inhibitor of Type III secretion system) and avermectin.
Prof. Ōmura’s innovative accomplishments include the synthesis of semisynthetic macrolides; the discovery of motilides; the organic synthesis of new compounds; the biosynthesis of macrolides and other new microbial metabolites; the hybrid biosynthesis of new macrolide antibiotics; the culturing of antibiotic-producing microorganisms, such as Streptomyces avermectinius; analysis of biosynthetic genetic mechanisms (e.g. complete mapping of the avermectin-producing strain S. avermectinius, the first for any industrially-important actinomycete); and the discovery of several new actinomycetes and fungi.

Prof. Ōmura has also continued to practice the philosophy of the founder of the Kitasato Institute, Shibasaburo Kitasato, and ensure that, wherever possible, the fruits of his research are applied to improve the quality of life for people around the world. Ivermectin, a safe, more potent derivative of avermectin, was the world’s first endectocide, which has gone on to become the world’s most commercially successful drug in animal health, as well as being donated for use in human health. More than 100 million mostly impoverished people throughout the tropics are receiving the anthelmintic drug annually free of charge as part of global disease elimination programmes that should soon rid the world of two of its most devastating and disfiguring diseases.

Avermectin/Ivermectin

Professor Ōmura (left) oversees collection of soils samples from the fringes of the golf course where the avermectin-producing strain of Streptomyces was found.

The most globally significant of the 410+ novel compounds that the Professor has discovered is the anthelmintic antibiotic, avermectin. A di-hydro derivative, ivermectin, was discovered and developed through a collaborative research programme with Merck, Sharp & Dohme Research Laboratories in the USA, and is regarded as one of the world's most important animal and human health drugs of the last 50 years.

Despite years of exhaustive searching worldwide, the avermectin-producing strain of bacterium found in Japan remains the only strain that produces avermectin. Prof Ōmura's group has deciphered the entire genome of the bacterium – Streptomyces avermectinius (avermitilis) – and is investigating ways of producing secondary avermectin-like metabolites of higher potency.

Other novel compounds

Many other compounds discovered by Professor Ōmura are important clinical agents or biological tools including:

• the antibiotic leucomycin;
• the erythromycin-derivatives, motilide, and rokitamycin;
• the animal-health antimicrobials nanaomycin A, and tilmicosin.

Several others are widely used as enzyme inhibitors, such as staurosporine, cerulenin, herbimycin, lactacystin, triacsins, and atpenin A5, facilitating a variety of basic biological and biomedical investigations around the world.

Awards and honors

Professor Ōmura stands before a plaque commemorating his colleague and mentor, Prof Max Tishler, ex-Head of Merck, Sharpe and Dohme and Professor of Chemistry at Wesleyan University.

Professor Ōmura has been universally recognized as a leader in the natural-products chemistry field, as evidenced by his numerous awards and honors. These include the:

• Charles Thom Award of Society for Industrial Microbiology (USA)
• Robert Koch Gold Medal (Germany)
• Prince Mahidol Award (Thailand)
• Nakanishi Prize of the Japan Chemical Society and the American Chemical Society
• Ernest Guenther Award in the Chemistry of Natural Products of the American Chemical Society
• Hamao Umezawa Memorial Award of the International Society of Chemotherapy
• Japan Academy Prize.

Among other international academic institutional memberships, the Professor has been elected as a member of the Japan Academy, Leopoldina Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher, and European Academy of Sciences. He is also a foreign associate of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the Institut de France Academie des Sciences, and the Chinese Academy of Engineering.

Satoshi Ōmura (handicap 5) in action at Japan's Kasumigaseki Golf Club

His honorary memberships include those of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the Royal Society of Chemistry (UK), and the Chemical Society of Japan. In 2007, Prof Ōmura was awarded the l’Ordre National de la Legion d’honneur (Chevalier), the highest formal recognition of merit bestowed by the government of France.

Publications and hobbies

Since 1973, Professor Ōmura has been a long-standing member of the editorial board of the Journal of Antibiotics, becoming Editor-in-Chief in 2004. He continues to publish extensively and among his books, the Macrolide Antibiotics (2nd edition) remains a world-leading textbook, while he has also published several volumes of personal essays and annually produces his own personalized calligraphy. The Professor is a consummate golfer and cross-country skier, and remains a leading patron of Japanese art, holding senior positions in several Japanese universities of art.