Akira Kaneko

Akira Kaneko was appointed as Professor of Parasitology of Osaka City University in 2010. Since then, he has conducted global health research with a particular focus on malaria elimination on islands in Vanuatu, Oceania and Lake Victoria, Kenya.

Education

Docent, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden (2004)

Ph.D, Department of Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden (1999)

D.T.M.& H, Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Thailand (1984)

M.D, Hirosaki University School of Medicine, Japan (1982)

Fellowships and Awards

The TROPMED Outstanding Alumni Award, Faculty of Tropical Medicine, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand (2018)

Tropical Medicine Award, Japan Society of Tropical Medicine, Japan (2016)

Senior Researcher Position grant, Swedish Research Council, Sweden (2010 – 2016 )

Hirosaki University School of Medicine Award (Hohoh Prize), Japan (2006)

Tokyo Metropolitan Medical Research Award, Japan (2001)

Selected publications

A pioneer work on pharmacogenetics of antimalarial drugs in ethnic populations of Melanesia:
Kaneko A, Kaneko O, Taleo G, Björkman A, Kobayakawa T. High frequencies of CYP2C19 mutations and poor
metabolism of proguanil in Vanuatu. Lancet 1997; 349: 921-922.

The first proof of concept for malaria elimination:
Kaneko A, Taleo G, Kalkoa M, Yamar S, Kobayakawa T, Björkman A. Malaria eradication on islands. Lancet
2000; 356: 1560-1564.

Genetic mechanisms for polymorphism of P. vivax parasite populations:
Putaporntip C, Jongwutiwes S, Sakihama N, Ferreira M U, Kho W G, Kaneko A, Kanbara H, Hattori T, Tanabe
K. Mosaic organization and heterogeneity in frequency of allelic recombination of the Plasmodium vivax
merozoite surface protein-1 locus. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 2002; 99: 16348-16353.

Evolutionary mechanisms of P. falciparum parasite populations on islands:
Tanabe K, Sakihama N, Kaneko A. Stable SNPs in malaria antigen genes in isolated populations. Science 2004;
303: 493.

The proof of concept for global malaria eradication:
Bhattarai A, Ali AS, Kachur SP, Mårtensson A, Abbas AK, Khatib R, Al-mafazy A-w, Ramsan M, Rotllant G,
Gerstenmaier JF, Molteni F, Abdulla S, Montgomery SM, Kaneko A, Björkman A. Impact of artemisinin-based
combination therapy and insecticide treated nets on malaria burden in Zanzibar. Plos Med 2007; 4; e309.