Toshiharu (Toshi) Nagatsu: an appreciation

Excerpt

Prof. Toshiharu Nagatsu—or “Toshi” as he is known to his many friends—has always harbored an interest in chemistry, dating back to his days at high school and to his medical studies at Nagoya University in Japan. It was during his time at the Nagoya University Medical Faculty, which was affiliated to a mental health hospital, that he came into contact with patients suffering from neuropsychiatric diseases and became fascinated in shedding light on the (bio)chemical basis of such disorders. Several important discoveries were made at that time—including Arvid Carlsson’s work in the field of brain dopamine actions and the discovery in the 1950s of the role of chlorpromazine in alleviating schizophrenic psychosis—which piqued his interest in neurochemistry and led him to immediately start laboratory practice at the Department of Biochemistry in the evenings beside his medical studies. Toshi began his research career in 1956 as a Ph.D. student working on catecholamines, a field that has determined his scientific life to this day. …