On Campus
UH scientist goes forth with acclaim
By Jennifer Hiller
Advertiser Staff Writer
Since his recent election to the prestigious National Academy of Sciences, University of Hawai'i professor Ryuzo Yanagimachi has one thing on his mind: work.
Yanagimachi, of cloned mouse fame, is continuing his research with little more than a brief pause to enjoy the accolade.
Membership in the National Academy of Sciences is one of the most prestigious honors a scientist can aspire to, considered by many to be the next best thing to a Nobel Prize. It is a private organization of scientists and engineers established by Congress in 1863.
This year, 72 American members and 15 foreign scientists working in the United States — including Yanagimachi — were elected on the basis of their lifetime work and on groundbreaking contributions in their fields.
"A friend nominated me, but since I still have Japanese citizenship I thought the chances of it happening were remote," said Yanagimachi, who is now one of about 300 international scientists belonging to the academy.
Yanagimachi's biggest challenge right now, though, could be with money.
Although the $4.9 million Institute for Biogenesis Research was built after his well-publicized cloning successes, Yanagimachi and his team are short on money for facility operations, staff members and pay resources to keep talented faculty members in Hawai'i.
The Institute for Biogenesis Research has no permanent endowment like what many other universities provide, he said, and graduate students are being turned away unless they already have fellowships.
"We must keep our building," he said. "We are short of even daily operating expenses. It's hard to compete."
Yanagimachi made international headlines in 1997 with a cloned mouse named Cumulina. Although she was not the world's first cloned animal, Cumulina stunned the scientific world because she was the first of more than 50 mice to be cloned through three generations.
Until Cumulina, researchers had been unable to duplicate the process successfully. She was named Cumulina because "The Honolulu Technique" used nuclei from cumulus cells from adult mice.
Yanagimachi followed the success with "Honolulu transgenesis," a method to transmit genetic material between species. The result was fluorescent green mice that got their unusual color from the genetic material of jellyfish.
Yanagimachi came to the University of Hawai'i in November 1966 and said he is proud that his lifetime of research has been done at the Manoa campus. "I did all the work here," he said.
Still, he said his work has not been done for the sake of cloning animals. Now he is using cloning in hopes of learning more about birth defects, the evolution of species and disease. For example, his team is working to create mice with Down syndrome so the scientists can study how to stop its development.
Also, the group has a grant to work on freeze-drying sperm as a way to store genetic material. Currently, the only way to keep embryos is in liquid nitrogen, which is expensive.
Mice will continue to be the primary object of his research, he said.
"What we find in mice can basically be applied to any other species," he said. "The mind is different, but the principles work in the same way. A mouse is small, but so much information is available."
