Shimon Sakaguchi (Experimental Immunology, IFReC) was elected the Thomson Reuters Citation Laureate 2015. The Laureates have been cited so often in the last two or more decades that these scientists typically rank in the top 0.1% in their research fields. The laureates are recognized to have written multiple high-impact articles over many years. ■ THOMSON REUTERS

Prof. Shimon Sakaguchi won the 68th Chunichi Award, and the award ceremony was held on May 25. The Chunichi award was founded in 1947. The scientists and the artists affiliated with Nagoya city have been awarded. Prof. Sakaguchi won this award for “Research of immune regulation by regulatory T cells”. He shared this year’s award with Prof. Hiroshi Amano of Nagoya University, who is a Nobel laureate in physics for the invention of blue LEDs. ⇒　CHUNICHI Web (in Japanese)

The Gairdner Foundation announced on March 25 that Prof Shimon Sakaguchi and the six other scientists are awarded The Canada Gairdner International Award 2015. The Canada Gairdner International Award is recognized as one of the most prestigious awards in biomedical sciences. The previous awardees include Kimishige Ishizaka, Susumu Tonegawa (immunology), and Shinya Yamanaka (regenerative medicine). Prof. Shizuo Akira (Director of IFReC) was also awarded the Gairdner Award by his groundbreaking discoveries in the field of innate immunity in 2011. The Gairdner Foundation commented “Prof. Sakaguchi is awarded for his discovery of regulatory T cells, characterization of their role in immunity and application to the treatment of autoimmune diseases and cancer.” The foundation provide

The authors found Treg cells directly inhibited, via CTLA-4, B cell expression of CD80 and CD86, which was essential for Tfh cell formation. Article

The authors found Treg can render self-reactive human CD8+ T cells anergic (i.e., hypoproliferative and cytokine hypoproducing upon antigen restimulation) in vitro, likely by controlling the costimulatory function of antigen-presenting cells. Article