日本人で初めてノーベル生理学・医学賞を受賞した生物学者の利根川進さんが死去

Welcome to Japanese Daily News. I'm Maya. Today is July seventeenth. Japan's first Nobel laureate in medicine, a biologist whose discovery changed how we understand the body, has passed away at eighty-six. Let's listen.

Now let's break it down, sentence by sentence.

The biologist Susumu Tonegawa, the first Japanese person to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, has passed away.

It means to win or receive a prize.

Tonegawa was born in Nagoya in nineteen thirty-nine, studied at Kyoto University, and then went to America to continue his research.

It means a biologist.

He revealed, at the level of genes, the mechanism of immunity, which protects the body from disease.

It means immunity, the body's defense against illness.

The human body makes many kinds of antibodies to fight various diseases.

It means an antibody.

Tonegawa discovered that a small number of genes combine to create an almost unlimited variety of antibodies.

It means a gene.

This research was published in nineteen seventy-six and greatly changed what had been the common understanding in biology.

It means common knowledge or common sense.

After that he moved his research base to MIT in America and took on the study of the brain.

It means to take on or challenge something.

Tonegawa worked on the difficult theme of where and how memory is stored in the brain.

It means memory.

The president of Kyoto University mourned his death, saying he made a great contribution to science in the world.

It means a contribution.

Let's listen to the whole story one more time.

Time for a short quiz. Listen and try to answer.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, which he received in nineteen eighty-seven.

The mechanism of immunity — how the body creates a huge variety of antibodies.

Research on the brain, especially how memory is stored.

That's all for today. Susumu Tonegawa, Japan's first Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine, has died at eighty-six. He uncovered how our genes build an almost endless variety of antibodies, overturned the common wisdom of biology, and later spent his life taking on the mysteries of memory in the brain. Thanks for listening, and see you tomorrow.