Event Details

BioCity Turku Guest Seminar

May 12th at 12.30-13.30 (Finland time)

Presidentti Auditorium, BioCity, Hybrid event

Shimon Sakaguchi, Nobel Laureate, Distinguished Professor, Experimental Immunology, Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC), Osaka University, Japan: Treg control of immune responses, especially autoimmunity and tumor immunity

Register to Immunology Seminar Series email list to receive calendar invitation to the seminar by Prof. Sakaguchi: https://link.webropolsurveys.com/S/D29C32AA6E8A2F7A

Host: Professor Riitta Lahesmaa ( rilahes@utu.fi )

Seminar is jointly organised by BioCity, Turku, and Turku Bioscience. For further information contact Anne Lahdenperä  ( ankahy@utu.fi ) or Riitta Lahesmaa ( rilahes@utu.fi ), University of Turku.

Shimon Sakaguchi is currently a Distinguished Honorary Professor at the Immunology Frontier Research Center (IFReC) Osaka University, Japan. He obtained an M.D. in 1976 and a Ph.D. in 1982 from Kyoto University, Japan, where he was trained as a pathologist and immunologist. After performing postdoctoral studies at Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University as a Lucille P. Markey Scholar, he served as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Immunology at the Scripps Research Institute. He returned to Japan in 1991 and continued his immunology research as the Head of the Department of Immunopathology at Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Gerontology, Tokyo. From 1998 to 2011, he was a Professor of Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences Kyoto University and served as the Director of the Institute from 2007 to 2011. In 2011, his lab moved to Osaka University. He was elected to Foreign Member of National Academy of Sciences USA in 2012, and has been awarded many international prizes including Cancer Research Institute’s William B. Coley Award in 2004, Keio Medical Science Prize in 2008, Canada Gairdner International Award in 2015, the Crafoord Prize in 2017, the German Immunology Award in 2019, the Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize in 2020, the Robert Koch Prize in 2020, and Debrecen Award for Molecular Medicine in 2023, and the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2025. He received an honorary degree from the University of Birmingham, UK, in 2019, the Medal with Purple Ribbon from the Government of Japan in 2009, and the Order of Culture, the highest accolade for Japanese scholars of humanities and natural sciences, from the Emperor of Japan in 2019.

Selected publications:

1. Tanaka A, Sakaguchi S. T Cell Receptor Signaling and Immune Tolerance: From Autoimmunity to Cancer Immunity. Annu Rev Immunol. 2026 Mar 2. doi: 10.1146/annurev-immunol-082724-025403. PMID: 41770842.

2. Osaki M, Sakaguchi S. Soluble CTLA-4 regulates immune homeostasis and promotes resolution of inflammation by suppressing type 1 but allowing type 2 immunity. Immunity. 2025 Mar 26:S1074-7613(25)00123-2. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2025.03.004.

3. Ichiyama K, Long J, Kobayashi Y, Horita Y, Kinoshita T, Nakamura Y, Kominami C, Georgopoulos K, Sakaguchi S. Transcription factor Ikzf1 associates with Foxp3 to repress gene expression in Treg cells and limit autoimmunity and anti-tumor immunity. Immunity. 2024 Jul 30:S1074-7613(24)00359-5. doi: 10.1016/j.immuni.2024.07.010. PMID: 39111316.

4. Tay C, Tanaka A, Sakaguchi S. Tumor-infiltrating regulatory T cells as targets of cancer immunotherapy. Cancer Cell. 2023 Mar 13;41(3):450-465. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2023.02.014. PMID: 36917950.

5. Kidani Y, Nogami W, Yasumizu Y, Kawashima A, Tanaka A, Sonoda Y, Tona Y, Nashiki K, Matsumoto R, Hagiwara M, Osaki M, Dohi K, Kanazawa T, Ueyama A, Yoshikawa M, Yoshida T, Matsumoto M, Hojo K, Shinonome S, Yoshida H, Hirata M, Haruna M, Nakamura Y, Motooka D, Okuzaki D, Sugiyama Y, Kinoshita M, Okuno T, Kato T, Hatano K, Uemura M, Imamura R, Yokoi K, Tanemura A, Shintani Y, Kimura T, Nonomura N, Wada H, Mori M, Doki Y, Ohkura N, Sakaguchi S. CCR8-targeted specific depletion of clonally expanded Treg cells in tumor tissues evokes potent tumor immunity with long-lasting memory. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2022 Feb 15;119(7):e2114282119. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2114282119. PMID: 35140181; PMCID: PMC8851483.

6. Tekguc M, Wing JB, Osaki M, Long J, Sakaguchi S. Treg-expressed CTLA-4 depletes CD80/CD86 by trogocytosis, releasing free PD-L1 on antigen-presenting cells. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2021 Jul 27;118(30):e2023739118. doi: 10.1073/pnas.2023739118.