Memorial: Tatsushi Muta, 1963-2013.

Abstract

Dr. Tatsushi Muta was a biochemist who died September 11, 2013, at the age of 50 at Tohoku University Hospital, Miyagi, Japan. Tatsu and I were in the process of preparing a draft of a manuscript, which is published in this edition of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology [1]. During his long career, Tatsu spearheaded research that led to the discovery and functional analysis of IκB-ζ, which has been instrumental in our understanding of the biologic homeostatic mechanisms of IκB-ζ. Unfortunately, despite overcoming challenges related to the East Japan great earthquake disaster on March 11, 2011, which damaged his laboratory at Tohoku University, this work became his last work. Tatsu was born on July 24, 1963, and grew up in Nagasaki, Japan. He attended Nagasaki-Kita High School, where he played baseball, and he dreamed of playing at Koshien, where the Japan National High School Baseball Tournament is held. He also had a passion for life sciences studies, guiding his decision to attend Kyusyu University in 1982. During graduate school, Tatsu worked in the laboratory of Dr. Sadaaki Iwanaga, who discovered the gram-negative bacterial endotoxin LPS. Tatsu was a very productive student and went on to receive a Master’s degree and Ph.D. while conducting research in Dr. Iwanaga’s laboratory. During these studies, Tatsu and his colleagues cloned proclotting enzyme and factor C, which play an important role in the coagulation cascade in the horseshoe crab. Tatsu also published 3 first-author papers, including 1 manuscript in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology, and Journal of Biochemistry [2–4]. He then became an assistant professor in Dr. Iwanaga’s laboratory and contributed to the identification of factors B and G, which are also involved in the coagulation cascade in the horseshoe crab.