Shinya Inoué facts for kids
Shinya Inoué (井上 信也, Inoue Shin'ya, January 5, 1921 – September 30, 2019) was a Japanese American scientist. He was a biophysicist and cell biologist. He was also a member of the National Academy of Sciences. Dr. Inoué studied how living cells work. He focused on seeing tiny, moving parts inside cells using special light microscopes.
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Discovering Cell Movements
Dr. Inoué is known as a pioneer in studying how the cell's "skeleton" moves. This "skeleton" is called the cytoskeleton. In the 1940s and 1950s, he built a very special microscope. This microscope used polarized light. It was the first of its kind that could show things moving inside live cells.
He used this microscope to prove something amazing. He showed that the mitotic spindle is made of tiny protein fibers. The mitotic spindle is a structure that helps cells divide. We now know these fibers are called microtubules.
How Microtubules Work
Dr. Inoué found that these spindle fibers are always changing. They are in a state of "dynamic equilibrium." This means they are constantly building up and breaking down. They do this by adding or removing tiny pieces from a pool in the cell's cytoplasm.
He showed that if you make these fibers build up too much, or break down too much, they create forces. These forces can move things inside the cell. He suggested that chromosomes move because of these forces during mitosis. Mitosis is when a cell divides into two new cells.
Dr. Inoué also helped develop video microscopy. This allowed scientists to record and watch cell processes. His ideas are now widely accepted. Scientists believe that chromosomes move during cell division because microtubules are breaking down. This way of creating force is very old. Even bacteria use it!
About Shinya Inoué
Shinya Inoué was born in London, England. His father was a diplomat. When he was young, he built his first special microscope. He made it from an old machine gun base and a tin tea can!
He went to Tokyo Metropolitan University in Japan. Then, he moved to the United States for his advanced studies at Princeton University. He taught at Dartmouth College from 1959 to 1966. Later, he became a professor at the University of Pennsylvania from 1966 to 1982. In 1982, he joined the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts.
Shinya Inoué passed away in East Falmouth, Massachusetts on September 30, 2019.
Education
- 1951 Ph.D. Biology, Princeton University
- 1950 M.A. Biology, Princeton University
- 1944 Rigakushi Zoology, University of Tokyo, Japan
Honors and Awards
- Order of the Sacred Treasure, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, May 2010
- International Prize for Biology, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, December 2003
- Ernst Abbe award, New York Microscopical Society, 1997
- Elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences, April 1993
- E.B. Wilson Medal, 1992
- Rosenstiel Award, 1987
- Guggenheim Fellowship, 1970
