Akira Endo (biochemist)

He received the Japan Prize in 2006, the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award in 2008, the Canada Gairdner International Award in 2017.

In the late 70s Endo moved back to Tokyo and was an associate professor and later a full professor (1986-) at the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology between 1979 and 1997. After his official retirement he became the president of Biopharm Research Laboratories.

Endo studied 6,000 compounds, of which three extrolites from Penicillium citrinum mold isolated from a rice sample collected at a grain shop in Kyoto showed an effect. Findings from clinical studies were only reported in 1980.

His most important work in the 1970s was on fungal extrolites and their influence on cholesterol synthesis. He hypothesised that fungi used chemicals to ward off parasitic organisms by inhibiting cholesterol synthesis. The cell membranes of fungi contain ergosterol in place of cholesterol, allowing them to produce compounds that inhibit cholesterol. In 1971 he found a culture broth with citrinin had potent inhibitory activity against HMG-CoA reductase and lowered serum cholesterol levels in rats, but research was suspended because of renal toxicity.

Endo was born on a farm in Northern Japan and had an interest in fungi already at a young age, 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 move to New York City in 1966, and spend two years at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine as a research associate working on cholesterol.

Akira Endo (遠藤 章, Endō Akira, born 14 November 1933) is a Japanese biochemist whose research into the relationship between fungi and cholesterol biosynthesis led to the development of statin drugs, which are some of the best-selling pharmaceuticals in history.