Stanford University's Leonard Herzenberg wins Japan Kyoto prize

Leonard Herzenberg
Photo courtesy Stanford University

By Anna Molin, Bay City News Service

June 10, 2006

STANFORD (BCN) - Longtime Stanford University professor and scientist Leonard Herzenberg has been awarded the 2006 Kyoto Prize, Japan's equivalent of the Nobel Prize, for developing a revolutionary cell-sorter technology in the late 1960s.

The Inamori Foundation yesterday announced the winners of the prize, which annually recognizes people who have contributed significantly to human progress in advanced technology, basic sciences, philosophy and the arts.

"I'm extremely pleased and excited to receive the award," Herzenberg, an emeritus professor of genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine, said in a statement. "I only wish it were possible to be shared with my wife and lifelong colleague, Leonore Herzenberg," who is also a genetics professor at Stanford.

Herzenberg directed the development of the first fluorescence activated cell sorter, or FACS, a device that can separate and count individual cells out of trillions, allowing scientists to analyze the particular genetics of a single cell as well as identify bacteria.

Since its invention, the FACS machine has been constantly improved and is now used worldwide in medical laboratories.

"It is an awfully good feeling to open almost any scientific journal and find articles referencing the FACS technology," Herzenberg said.

"It's even being used to analyze plankton from the depths of the ocean and to perform experiments on the space shuttle."

Herzenberg was first among the scientists who worked on the device to realize its huge potential in research and medicine.

The sorter "makes sense out of chaos" and uses a technology that separates cells through fluorescent tags applied during experiments, according to a Stanford University statement. By divvying up rare immune stem cells or cells that populate in diseases, such as cancer or HIV, the sorter has made invaluable contributions to the treatment of AIDS, cancer and other infectious diseases.

"The FACS is one of the most important medical devices ever developed," Dean of Stanford University School of Medicine Philip Pizzo said in a statement. "In the early 1980s, it provided fundamental insights into the impact of HIV on the immune system and it has been a valuable tool for diagnosing, monitoring and treating HIV/AIDS, cancer and infectious diseases.

Professor Herzenberg is truly one of the leading innovators in human biology of the 20th century."

Herzenberg will travel to Kyoto, Japan, in November when each winner will receive a 20-karat gold medal and a $446,000 cash prize from the Inamori Foundation.

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