(From left) Professor Eckart Wolf, Professore NAGASHIMA Hiroshi and Professor Reinhard Straubinger
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU Munich) conferred an honorary doctorate upon Professor NAGASHIMA Hirosh of the Department of Life Sciences, the School of Agriculture. The conferment ceremony was held on July 26 in the university auditorium.
NAGASHIMA’s laboratory collaborated with Professor Eckart Wolf and colleagues at LMU Munich’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine to jointly develop the technology for creating genetically modified cloned pigs. They worked on developing disease model pigs and organ donor pigs for xenotransplantation. This research was initiated in 2006 after Professor Wolf approached NAGASHIMA laboratory with a proven track record in pig cloning technology. Since then, graduate students and researchers have been dispatched, achieving results in developing models for intractable diseases such as muscular dystrophy and Laron syndrome.
These achievements were highly regarded, leading to the establishment of ICON, a joint research center by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and the Faculty of Medicine, in 2024. Furthermore, the development of genetically modified pigs for heart transplantation, in which NAGASHIMA laboratory’s technology played a crucial role, was also recognized, leading to the establishment of a 300-pig breeding facility at the LMU Munich research farm. At the conferment ceremony, Professor Reinhard Straubinger, Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, honored Professor NAGASHIMA’s contributions.
Comment from Professor NAGASHIMA
In addition to sharing genetically modified pigs, we actively promoted exchanges between researchers and graduate students. One graduate student dispatched in 2006 later became a researcher under Professor Wolf and obtained permanent residency in Germany. This researcher has made significant contributions to the advancement of research.
Comment from Professor Wolf
Without NAGASHIMA laboratory’s contributions, large-scale projects using cloned pigs, ICON, and the establishment of breeding facilities would not have been possible.
Collaborative research by graduate students