Rate My Professor Tasuku Honjo

Tasuku Honjo serves as Distinguished Professor at the Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study and Director of the Center for Cancer Immunotherapy and Immunobiology in the Graduate School of Medicine at Kyoto University. He earned his M.D. from Kyoto University in 1966 and his Ph.D. in medical chemistry from the same institution in 1975. His early career included a fellowship at the Carnegie Institution of Washington and positions as Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo Faculty of Medicine and Professor in the Department of Genetics at Osaka University School of Medicine. In 1984 he returned to Kyoto University as Professor in the Department of Medical Chemistry, later serving as Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Graduate School of Medicine from 1996 to 2000 and again from 2002 to 2004. Since 2005 he has held the position of Specially-Appointed Professor and in 2017 became Distinguished Professor at the Kyoto University Institute for Advanced Study, where he also served as Deputy Director-General until 2025.

Honjo’s research specializes in molecular immunology. He is recognized for discovering activation-induced cytidine deaminase, essential for class-switch recombination and somatic hypermutation, and for cloning PD-1 in 1992, demonstrating its role as an immune checkpoint. These contributions led to the development of cancer immunotherapy through inhibition of negative immune regulation. In 2018 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with James P. Allison. Additional honors include numerous national and international awards for his work in immunology and cancer research. He has published extensively, with key papers appearing in journals such as EMBO Journal and Immunity. Honjo continues to influence the field through leadership of research centers and mentorship of scientists advancing genomic medicine and immunotherapy at Kyoto University.