Richard I. Morimoto

Richard I. Morimoto is a Japanese American molecular biologist. He is the Bill and Gayle Cook Professor of Biology and Director of the Rice Institute for Biomedical Research at Northwestern University.

Education and academic career

He holds a B.S. from the University of Illinois at Chicago, received a Ph.D. in biology (laboratory of Professor Murray Rabinowitz) from The University of Chicago in 1978, and conducted postdoctoral research (laboratory of Professor Matthew Meselson) and was a Tutor in Biochemical Sciences at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA. In 1982, Morimoto joined the faculty of the Department of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL. He served previously as the Chair of Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, and Cell Biology, the Dean of The Graduate School, and the Associate Provost of Graduate Education at Northwestern University.

Civic leadership

• Faculty liaison to founding of the Asian American Studies Program at Northwestern University – March, 1995
• Faculty Advisory Board – Asian American Studies Program at Northwestern University – 1999-present
• Midwest Buddhist Temple, Chicago, IL. – Board of Trustees, 2004-present; President, Board of Trustees, 2009 – 2014
• Japanese American Citizens League, Japanese American of the Biennium, 2010
• Chicago Nikkei Forum, 2014-present
• Board of Trustees, Japanese American National Museum, 2014-present
• Japanese American Leadership Delegation, 2015, U.S.-Japan Council (USJC), Foreign Ministry of Japan

Science

Morimoto is widely recognized for his research on the regulation of the heat shock stress response and the function of molecular chaperones. His current research is to understand how organisms sense and respond to physiologic and environmental stress through the activation of genetic pathways that integrate stress responses with molecular and cellular responses that determine cell growth and cell death. The stress of misfolded and damaged proteins influences neuronal function and lifespan at the level of the organism. Consequently, these studies provide a molecular basis to elucidate the underlying mechanisms of neurodegenerative diseases including Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, ALS, and Alzheimer's disease. His laboratory has published over 250 papers and three monographs including two books on the Heat Shock Response and Molecular Chaperones from Cold Spring Harbor Press. During that period he received two MERIT awards from the National Institutes of Health and has been supported by the grants from the National Institutes for General Medical Science, National Institutes of Aging, National Institutes for Neurological Diseases and Stroke, American Cancer Society, Huntington's Disease Society of America, the Hereditary Disease Foundation, and the ALS Association. In addition to giving frequent talks at universities and scientific symposia throughout the world, he has been a visiting professor at the Technion University in Israel, Osaka University, Kyoto University, Kyoto Sangyo University, University of Rome, Beijing University, Åbo Akademi University in Finland, and École Normale Supérieure in Paris. He is a founder of Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc. in Cambridge, MA, a biotech company that is discovering and developing novel small molecule therapeutics designed to control the body's protein homeostasis. These novel therapies are designed to treat multiple degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, Huntington's disease, cancer, and type II diabetes.

Science recognition

• Dreyfus Distinguished Young Faculty Award, 1982
• American Cancer Society Faculty Research Award, 1987
• Elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1998
• National Institutes of Health Merit Award - National Institute for General Medical Science (2000), National Institute on Aging (2011)
• Huntington's Disease Society of America, Award for Excellence in Medicine, 2005
• Doctor of Philosophy, Honoris Causa – Åbo Akademi University, Turku, Finland, 2008
• Elected Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2011
• University of Illinois, Alumni Achievement Award, 2011
• Commandeur, Ordre des Palmes Académiques, Ministry of Education, France, 2013
• Feodor Lynen Medal, 2014
• Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Fellow, 2015

In pop culture

In a YouTube video published in 2009, members of the Morimoto lab showed C. elegans forming a smiley face on a culture plate. The video description jokes that when a post doc in the lab told them to smile, the C. elegans, lacking faces as individuals, formed the smiley face as a group, suggesting that they are intelligent, have ears, and can work in groups. In reality, the footage is playing in reverse: the C. elegans were placed into that formation on the plate by a human and then crawled away. By reversing the footage, it looks like the C. elegans spontaneously form a smiley face. The video manipulation is hinted at in the description that reminds the viewers that the YFP is brighter in the individuals' head than their tails.

External links

• Morimoto Lab Website
• Morimoto Research Summary
• Proteostasis Therapeutics, Inc. on LinkedIn