花房秀三郎さん（１９２９ー２００９）の死を悼む

米国で、３７年間 （１９６１ー１９９８）、同級生である奥さん（照子さん）と共に、
癌ウイルス (発癌遺伝子「ＳＲＣ」) の研究分野で大活躍した阪大理学部（化学
科）出身の「侍」でした。 ご本人には一度も会ったことはありませんが、秘かに
尊敬していた先達でした。　私も今年で海外での癌研究の３６年目を迎えます。。。

http://www.asahi.com/obituaries/update/0315/OSK200903150038.html

花房秀三郎さん死去　がん遺伝子研究の権威　

がん遺伝子研究の権威で、文化勲章や朝日賞を受けた米ロックフェラー大名誉教
授の花房秀三郎（はなふさ・ひでさぶろう）さんが１５日、肝不全で死去した。
７９歳だった。通夜と葬儀は故人の遺志により親族のみで行う。

兵庫県西宮市生まれ。大阪大理学部を卒業後、大阪大微生物病研究所助手時代に
米国に渡り、７３年からロックフェラー大教授。９８年に帰国し、大阪府吹田市
にある産官学協同の研究施設大阪バイオサイエンス研究所の所長などを務めた。

ニワトリの癌 (ラウス肉腫) ウイルスの研究から、がん遺伝子という新しい考え
方を切り開いた。ニワトリに癌を起こすウイルスは、がん遺伝子をニワトリの細
胞に持ち込む。実は、このがん遺伝子 (ｖＳＲＣ) とよく似た遺伝子 (ｃＳＲＣ
) が、もともと正常な細胞の中にあることを実験で証明し、ウイルスが癌を起こ
すという従来の常識を覆した。この成果から、人間を含めた発癌の仕組みの解明
が進んだ。

８２年に米国医学界最高の賞とされるラスカー賞を日本人で初めて受賞した。８
３年度に朝日賞、９５年に文化勲章を受けた。

朝日新聞 (2009年3月16日)


Hidesaburo Hanafusa （１９２９ー２００９）, A pioneer in the oncogene
SRC research

Dr. Hanafusa's early work at Rockefeller University during 1970s-1980s with
the Rous sarcoma virus (RSV), a virus that causes cancer in birds, has laid
the foundation for a new concept on how cancer is caused by altered genes,
"oncogenes", within an organism's own cells. This oncogene theory proposes
that genes have the potential to cause a normal cell to become cancerous.

Hanafusa (nicknamed "Saburo") was born on December 1, 1929 in Nishinomiya,
Japan, as a son of Kamehachi and Tomi Hanafusa. He majored in biochemistry,
and received his bachelor's degree in 1953, and his Ph.D. in 1960, both
from Osaka University. On May 11, 1958, He married Teruko Inoue, his university
classmate, and she became his life-long scientific partner. The couple have
one daughter, Kei. In 1961, they left Japan to start working with Harry
Rubin, a pioneer in tumor virus research at the University of California
in Berkeley.

When the 1966 Nobel Prize-winning pathologist Peyton Rous (1879-1970) at
Rockefeller Institute made the pioneering discovery in 1910 that a virus
causes cancer in chickens, the basic mechanism of cancer were as yet poorly
understood. A half century later, Hanafusa continued the research into the
causes of viral cancer. His initial project with Rubin at the University
of California produced a major discovery. While trying to isolate pure RSV,
the researchers found that the virus could transform normal cells into cancerous
ones. Interestingly, however, the virus could not replicate itself without
a protein from a helper virus. This virus became a tool for future experiments.
By changing the properties and activities of the altered RSV, Hanafusa could
analyze key reactions that are responsible for bringing about a cancerous
state. He pursued these studies as a visiting scientist at the College de
France in Paris during 1964 -1966, and then as head of a laboratory of
viral oncology at the Public Health Research Institute in New York City.

In 1973 Hanafusa became the professor of viral oncology at the Rockefeller
University. In a new set of experiments, he injected chickens with RSV that
had been altered to remove most of the genetic information specifically
responsible for tumor formation. To his surprise, the chickens developed
tumors anyway. On examination, he found the viruses had reacquired the missing
tumor gene--the oncogene--from the chicken cell's own genetic information.
These experiments showed that inappropriate activation of normal cellular
genes causes tumors. Almost a decade later, in 1982, he and his Japanese
colleague, Tatsuo Takeya, finally proved that the oncogene (v-SRC) in RSV
is indeed a mutant of normal cellular gene (cSRC). For this discovery on
SRC gene, he was awarded the Lasker Award in 1982.

In 1998, a few years after his wife "Teruko" passed away in 1996, he retired
from Rockefeller University, and returned to Japan, and directed the Osaka
Bioscience Institute. On March 15, 2009, he passed away at Osaka University
Hospital. His old friend and former colleague, Peter Vogt, wrote: "Saburo"
was a great scientist and a wonderful human being.