GLYCOHISTORY

Trends in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology Vol. 8 No. 40 (March 1996) pp. 137-141

Prof. Fujio Egami as a Father of Glycoconjugate Researchers Personal Reflections

Takahashi, Noriko1); and Muramatsu, Takashi2) 1)Central Research Laboratories Nakano Vinegar Co. Ltd, Handa-shi, Aichi-ken 475, Japan,FAX:81-569-24-5028

2)Department of Biochemistry Nagoya University School of Medicine, Showa-ku, Nagoya 466, Japan,FAX:81-52-744-2065

Key Word:glycolipids, glycoproteins, glycosidases, Japanese science, Prof.F.Egami

The life of Prof. Egami (1910-1982) was a brilliant one. He was a distinguished biochemist. At 33 years of age (1943), he had already taken up a post as professor in the Faculty of Science, Nagoya University, and in 1958, he transferred to the University of Tokyo to engage in active research. After his re-tirement (in 1971), he established the Mitsubishi-Kasei Insti-tute of Life Sciences and became the first director of the Insti-tute. He continued to lead the research group even after 1980 as honorary director of the Institute, until his hospitalization due to cancer.

Prof. Egami graduated from the Department of Chemis-try, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo in 1933 and did his

graduate studies at the laboratory of Prof. T. Soda. He studied sulfatases from Charomia lampas and discovered the sulfated

polysaccharide, "charoninsulfuric acid": thus his research started with glycoconjugates. After that, he went to France to study biochemistry under Professor M. Nicloux and Professor E. Aubel. Consequently, Prof. Egami worked with an atmo-

19101982

33

1958

1971

1980

M.Nicloux EAubel

1996 FCCA (Forum: Carbohydrates Coming of Age)137

Trends in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology Vol. 8 No. 40 (March1996) pp. 137-141

At his laboratory in Nagoya University.

sphere of French esprit. During the period when he was a pro-fessor at Nagoya University and the University of Tokyo, he made distinctive contributions in a wide range of subjects, in-cluding nitric acid reductases, streptolysin, bacteriocins such as

pyocin and sulfate esters. Moreover, he discovered ribonu-clease Tl, which was to be important in determining the struc-ture of tRNA. This work marked one of his most brilliant achievements, and in 1971 he was awarded the Japan Academy Prize.

It was not only his research achievements, but also Prof. Egami's contribution towards increasing activities in biochem-istry in Japan which were great, especially, just after the Second World War when Japan was a developing country. In 1968, he became president of the Biochemical Society of Japan and was appointed an honorary member from 1976. He also contributed to organizing the International Union of Biochemistry and worked as a counseller from 1961 to 1970. In 1967, as Secre-tary-General he invited the International Congress of Biochem-istry to Japan. In addition, he was a member of the Science Council of Japan for 23 years, from the organization's begin-nings, and he served as its president for three years.

Since he became a professor earlier than most and worked in many administrative position, Prof. Egami did not have the time to perform his own experiments and he was not to be seen in laboratory gear. He was not known as a skillful laboratory scientist and he often broke the equipment. Prof. Egami was interested in the entire field of biochemistry, indeed he was a genius from whom ideas flowed out constantly. He appreciated a good investigator whether man or woman. At that time, in Japan, although the"coeducational system" and "equal rights for both sexes"officially existed

, the actual situa-tion was still discriminatory. Prof. Egami judged researchers' abilities without sex discrimination, and he was a favorite with

T1

T1tRNA

196876

G96~701967

23 3

1381996 FCCA (Forum: Carbohydrates Coming of Age)

Trends in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology Vol. 8 No. 40 (March 1996) pp. 137-141

Table. Examples of Researchers for Glycoconjugate Attached to the Egami-Lab.

(in chronological order)

Name of Researcher Belonging to

Ikuo Yamashina Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Kyoto University

Sakaru Suzuki Faculty of Science, Nagoya University

Noriko Takahashi Nagoya City University Medical School

Sadako Inoue Pharmaceutical Science, Showa University

Yasuo Inoue Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo

Tatsuya Yamagata Department of Biomolecular Engineering

Tokyo Institute of Technology

Kenichi Kasai Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Teikyo University

Takashi Muramatsu Nagoya University School of Medicine

Minoru Fukuda La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation

Michiko Fukuda La Jolla Cancer Research Foundation

* at present, or before the retirement

women, always surrounded by enthusiastic female groups at

the social events of the annual biochemistry meetings.

Another of Prof. Egami contributions to the field of sci-

ence was that he educated many researchers and became their

mentor. Most of these people were educated by Prof. Egami in

their university years, then went off on their own way. Today,

these students are active in such diverse fields as biochemistry,

organic chemistry and molecular biology. Ryo Sato, the dis-

coverer of cytochrome P450, and Yoshimasa Hirata, a great

scholar of organic chemistry are famous examples of Prof.

Egami's school. In glycoconjugate research, the contribution

of investigators from Prof. Egami's school has been invaluable.

If you refer to the Table, you can see that there were many

important enzymes, especially decomposing complex carbohy-

drates, studied by people from Prof. Egami's school, such as

chondroitinases by Sakaru Suzuki, amidase by Ikuo

Yamashina, endo--N-acetyl- glucosaminidase by Takashi

Muramatsu, glycoamidases by Noriko Takahashi, endo--ga-

lactosidase (as a degradation enzyme of poly-N-acetyl-

lactosamine) by Michiko Fukuda, and endoglycoceramidase by

Tatsuya Yamagata. Why did so many glycoconjugate investi-

gators grow up under Prof. Egami and carry out highly original

research and investigation ? Although we cannot describe ev-

ery detail of his distinguished career since that would be be-

yond our scope, we would like to reply to the request from the

TIGG editiorial board by elaborating on the above points,

based on our own experience.

We recall that Prof. Egami had a warm regard for his

former students' achievements. In the case of Takahashi, Prof

Egami praised her for discovering glycoamidase (glycopeptid-

P450

--

N-

---N-

GlycoamidaseGlycopeptidasefromalmond

1996 FCCA (Forum: Carbohydrates Coming of Age)139

Trends in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology Vol. 8 No. 40 (March1996) pp. 137-141

ase of almond) more than 10 years after leaving his laboratory.

Indeed, finding enzymes with a new specificity was his favor-

ite subject, as in the finding of ribonuclease Ti. Prof. Egami

always told us " Believe in what you find" and "there is no such

thing as an important theme ; you make it important. " He

meant to instill the spirit of making our own science. He also

would say " You should be delighted when you get an unex-

pected and apparently discouraging result. You will have

made a real discovery." Muramatsu, who was a postdoctoral

fellow at Dr. S.G. Natherson's laboratory in New York, ful-

filled these words discovering endo--N-acetylgluco-

saminidase incidentally while studying carbohydrates of H-2

antigen. Thus Prof. Egami's positive attitude and encourage-

ment towards each young student to do their own science were

key factors in producing so many active and original investiga-

tors. And it was the biochemistry of the glycoconjugates with

the possibilities of their exciting development, that was chosen

as a field of research by many of Egami's students.

Prof. Egami had an outstanding ability to attract young,

bright students. The Department of Biophysics and Biochem-

istry, Faculty of Science, University of Tokyo, trained eight

students per year when Muramatsu was a student. Of the eight,

half joined Prof. Egami's laboratory in the graduate course,

mainly because of his gentle and energetic character and the

charisma of his presentation . He lectured on carbohydrates,

nucleic acids and metabolism, emphasizing the process of in-

vestigation. Students felt as if they were actually present at the

site of actual investigation. They listened to the organic reac-

tion determining the structure of glucose as eagerly as the cli-

max of a detective story. Once, eight students were given indi-

vidual problems. Muramatsu's subject was " Describe the

process of finding and the structural elucidation of sialic acids".

He undertook the subject without full-understanding what

sialic acid was. It was a pretty challenging task, and his initial

sources of information were Advances in Carbohydrate Chem-

istry and Chemical Abstracts.

Needless to say, the interaction between investigators

and students belonging to Egami's school also played an im-

portant role. For example, Muramatsu was strongly influ-

enced by Profs S. Suzuki and I. Yamashita, who are senior

members of Prof. Egami's school. These and other connec-

tions would be a fascinating topic in themselves .

Two years ago, Takahashi and Muramatsu edited a book

entitled "Endoglycosidases and Glycoamidases " published by

CRC Press. Drs. Michiko Fukuda and Tatsuya Yamagata

kindly contributed chapters, and we were impressed by the

contribution of Egami's school in this field. It is a great pity

Prof. Egami did not see this book. He would have been proud of

his former students' contributions. Then, Dr. Sen-ichiroh

Hakomori reviewed the book in FCCA and called it a book

dedicated to the late Prof. Egami. Our impression was ap-

T1

Nathenson

H2

--N-

"

8

4

8

AdvancesinCarbohydrateChemistry ChemicalAb

stracts

2 EndoglycosidasesandGlycoami

dases CRCPress

FCCA

1401996 FCCA (Forum: Carbohydrates Coming of Age)

Trends in Glycoscience and Glycotechnology Vol. 8 No. 40 (March 1996) pp. 137-141

proved. The achievements of Prof. Egami left their mark on an

era in the history of Japanese biochemistry. However his vi-sion was a far reaching one. Prof. Egami and Dr. Keiko Nakamura translated Watson's Double Helix into Japanese. In the translators' note, Prof Egami wrote that Japanese biochem-istry needs investigators as strong as James Watson. In "Dif-ferent Slices of Biochemistry" (1971), a book celebrating his retirement from the University of Tokyo, he added that, "Here-after the leaders of Japan's foremost institutions need a more ambitious attitude". The research policy of Prof. Egami had both unique and general aspects. The former reflected the unique circumstances, of the period immediately following de-feat in the Second World War, and was the result of deep thought and intuition, how to do meaningful research and raise the next generation in such a difficult period. And Egami's beautiful philosophy of research was to make a life-long impact on former members of Prof. Egami's lab.

At the beginning of 1980, Muramatsu visited Prof. Egami at his office at the Mitsubishi Kasei Institute of Life Science. After reporting developments he asked a question that occupied a part of his mind. There were several problems, that couldn't be resolved simply even with the progress of sci-ence. "What should scientists do?" " What is the future of hu-mans?" Prof. Egami replied :" There is no way but to have faith

in the intelligence of humans." It was a pure, positive and meaningful reply, typical of Prof. Egami. In closing, we cite a

poem of his which is so popular in the Egami school.

If I find a mountain which is not visible to others, I hurry to climb it.

Does such a mountain exist? When I climb a mountain visible to others,

I climb it slowly. Then I find unexpected flowers and stones. I want to climb with pleasure.

"

1971"

1980

"

Received on February 9, 1996, accepted on February 15, 1996

1996 FCCA (Forum: Carbohydrates Coming of Age)141