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Dr. Cotter's Certainty Opened the Door of Tanaka
to the World
Robert J. Cotter
(Ph.D.)*
Professor of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences
Professor of Biophysics and Biophysical Chemistry
Director: Middle Atlantic Mass Spectrometry Laboratory
Johns Hopkins University, School of Medicine |
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Catherine
Fenselau (Ph.D.) *
Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry
University of Maryland, College of Life Science |
| * Dr. Cotter and Dr.
Fenselau are partners each other in research as well as in private
life. |
As you know, Catherine and I have always felt that Koichi Tanaka played
a very critical role in the development of the ionization techniques
that now permit analysis of very large biological molecules. At a
time when particle beam, electrospray and laser methods were being
utilized for peptides and small proteins, Koichi was first able to
cross the barrier to large proteins. As such, I believe that he provided
considerable inspiration to the rest of the mass spectrometry community
to look at even higher masses. Koichi is most deserving of the Nobel
Prize for this effort, and we are very pleased to share this moment
with him in Sweden. |
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Tanaka and others in front of the first LAMS-50K at
Shimadzu Japan in 1989
From left, Koichi Tanaka (Shimadzu Corp.), Dr. Cotter(Johns Hopkins Univ.),
Dr. Hotta (Kobe Women's Univ.), Dr. A. Burlingame (Univ. of California),
Katsuaki Shiratsuchi (Shimadzu Corp.) |
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Recollections of the Other Four of the Research
Quintet
Tamio Yoshida
(Ph.D.)
General Manager, Technology Research Laboratory
Shimadzu Corporation |
Research commenced in 1982. We decided the field
of R&D that each one of us would take as his responsibility. We
met once a week to discuss progress status and problems, with each
making a monthly report, so that the project could move forward with
each member kept fully informed about what the others were doing.
This was extremely effective in grasping the extent of research progress
and marshalling everyone's priorities. By mid-project we had already
obtained world-beating data, but we made it our research strategy
to keep the data in house until we had compiled all results. We each
took responsibility for a certain section of the results and gave
five presentations and provided two publications about our work at
the Conference of the Mass Spectrometry Society of Japan in 1987.
The work concerned with the Nobel Prize is "matrix assisted laser
desorption/ionization", which largely breaks down into four basic
requirement technologies: "ion generation", "ion separation",
"ion detection" and "data processing". It was
because we handled development work for these four requirements for
biological macromolecules in a steadfast manner that we reached our
goal in a comparatively short time and it has become the monumental
event in the field of mass spectrometry. From then on, in each area
of work, development of the matrix and a time-of- flight mass spectrometer
progressed as a solid link to the successful MALDI-TOF of today. I
personally believe that Koichi Tanaka's Nobel Prize is not just for
the development of the biological macromolecule ionization method
but also for the effort he put into disseminating the method over
the many ensuing years. Moreover, there were no shortcuts in the development
work; Koichi Tanaka's major breakthrough derived from meticulous attention
to detail in building up time-consuming results. I also think this
has a strong connection to this magnificent but unexpected award.
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The four members who worked on the project with Koichi Tanaka
from left, Yutaka Ido (Manager in the Device Department), Satoshi
Akita (R&D Manager of the Device Department). Tamio Yoshida (General
Manager of the Technology Research Laboratory) and Yoshikazu Yoshida
(Senior Manager of the Technology Research Laboratory) |
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