Tsuneko Okazaki

Japanese scientist

Tsuneko Okazaki (岡崎 恒子) is a Japanese pioneer of molecular biology known for her work on DNA replication and specifically for discovering Okazaki fragments, along with her husband Reiji. Dr. Tsuneko Okazaki has continued to be involved in academia, contributing to more advancements in DNA research.

Tsuneko Okazaki was born in Nagoya, capital of the Aichi Prefecture of Japan, in 1933. She graduated from Aichi Prefectural Asahigaoka Senior High School. During her undergraduate years, she studied biology at Nagoya University School of Science. She graduated with her PhD from Nagoya University School of Science in 1956, which was also the year that she met her husband, Reiji Okazaki. They married that same year and soon after, they joined their research work and laboratories. After Reiji Okazaki's early death from Hiroshima induced leukemia in 1975, Tsuneko continued her research and moved on to proving the structure of the RNA primer associated with Okazaki fragments.

Tsuneko has continued to be involved in different research projects up to this day, mainly investigating different aspects of DNA. She has served as head of laboratories, lead academic supervisor of students, and as a significant intellectual contributor. Specifically, her contributions have been on research done on revealing hGCMa as a placenta specific transcription regulator, possibly involved in the expression of multiple placenta specific genes. She contributed to research on the human centromere protein B found to induce translational positioning of nucleosomes on α satellite sequences. She worked on understanding the genomic regulation of HLA G and how the presence of a LINE1 gene silencer may explain the limited expression of HLA G. She also contributed to the research on mice with characteristics of down syndrome in order to understand the genotype phenotype characteristics of down syndrome in humans.

Tsuneko was an associate professor in molecular biology at the School of Science in Nagoya University from 1967 to 1983. She held this position until she became a lead professor from 1983 to 1997. In 1997, she moved to the Institute of Comprehensive Medical Science, Fujita Health University, where she was a professor for five years and then became a visiting professor until 2008. Additionally, throughout the years of 2004 to 2007, her main job was in the Stockholm office, where she was the director of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science. She was also CEO/president and director of Chromo Research Inc. from 2008 to 2015. Reiji Okazaki died in 1975, but Tsuneko continued working to complete the research they were working on.

Tsuneko was awarded the L'Oréal UNESCO Awards for Women in Science in 2000. She was also awarded the Medal with Purple Ribbon in 2000, the Order of the Sacred Treasure, [and] Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon in 2008. In 2015, Nagoya University created the Tsuneko and Reiji Okazaki Award, "in honor of the spirit and legacy of Professors Okazaki." In 2015, she was elected as a Person of Cultural Merit. In 2021, she received the Order of Culture.