Dr. Shizuo Akira of IFReC awarded 2011 Canada Gairdner International Award

Osaka University is happy to announce that Dr. Shizuo AKIRA of the World Premier International (WPI) Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC) has been chosen as a recipient of the 2011 Canada Gairdner International Award .

Together with the Lasker Awards, the Canada Gairdner International Awards are among the most prestigious awards in the biomedical sciences. The awards are presented to researchers who have made outstanding contributions to basic and clinical medical science; recipients of Canada Gairdner International Awards include many Nobel Prize winners.

Dr. Akira received the award " For revolutionizing our understanding of innate resistance to infection in the animal kingdom by discovering the role of Toll-like receptors [TLRs] and the array of microbial compounds that they recognize and respond to ."

We offer Dr. Akira our sincere congratulations on this great honor and achievement.