Herzenberg accepts Kyoto Prize
Leonard Herzenberg at a news conference in Kyoto after receiving the award considered to be Japan’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
The Inamori Foundation presented its 22nd annual Kyoto Prize in Advanced Technology on Nov. 10 to Leonard Herzenberg, PhD, professor of genetics, emeritus (active). At a ceremony in Kyoto, amid the grandeur of Japan's imperial family, Herzenberg and the winners of the awards in basic science and arts and philosophy each received a diploma, a 20-karat gold medal and a gift of about $425,000. Herzenberg was honored with the Japanese equivalent of the Nobel Prize for his invention of the fluorescence-activated cell sorter, which can extract individual living cells out of a population of trillions based only on their protein fingerprints. The sorter jump-started the fields of modern immunology, stem cell research and proteomics, and made invaluable contributions to clinical care, including treatment of diseases such as cancer, AIDS and other infectious diseases. FACS machines are now ubiquitous in research and clinical laboratories around the world.
