--- title: MIT Professor Susumu Tonegawa, renowned molecular... description: Susumu Tonegawa, the Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at MIT and 1987 Nobel laureate, died July 11 at age 86. He discovered V(D)J gene... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/mit-professor-susumu-tonegawa-renowned-molecular-biologist-and-nobel-laureate-dies-at-86-fvy69v4op twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: MIT Professor Susumu Tonegawa, renowned molecular biologist and Nobel laureate, dies at 86 | daily.dev og:description: Susumu Tonegawa, the Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at MIT and 1987 Nobel laureate, died July 11 at age 86. He discovered V(D)J gene... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/mit-professor-susumu-tonegawa-renowned-molecular-biologist-and-nobel-laureate-dies-at-86-fvy69v4op og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/FVY69v4Op.png og:image:alt: MIT Professor Susumu Tonegawa, renowned molecular biologist and Nobel laureate, dies at 86 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # MIT Professor Susumu Tonegawa, renowned molecular biologist and Nobel laureate, dies at 86 **[MIT News](https://daily.dev/sources/mit)** · 7 min read · 4 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Susumu Tonegawa, the Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at MIT and 1987 Nobel laureate, died July 11 at age 86. He discovered V(D)J gene rearrangement — how the immune system generates antibody diversity from a limited set of genes — earning him the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He later pivoted to neuroscience, founding MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory and conducting landmark research on memory engrams, including the identification of episodic memory traces in the hippocampus and the implantation of false memories in mice using optogenetics. He served on MIT's faculty for over 40 years and trained generations of neuroscientists. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### What did Susumu Tonegawa win the Nobel Prize for? Susumu Tonegawa won the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering V(D)J gene rearrangement, the genetic mechanism that explains how the immune system generates hundreds of millions of distinct antibodies from a relatively small set of genes. He showed that genes for different antibody components are randomly recombined, producing near-limitless combinations, work done with colleagues at the Basel Institute for Immunology. _Explore how landmark biology discoveries get contextualized alongside today's research news on daily.dev._ ### What are memory engrams and who discovered them in the brain's hippocampus? Memory engrams are specific groups of hippocampal cells that store episodic memories, encoding elements like objects, space, and time tied to a particular experience. Susumu Tonegawa's lab identified these engrams in 2013 and showed that reactivating an existing engram via optogenetics while a mouse formed a new memory could implant a false memory, linking an actual event to a different location. _Readers tracking neuroscience breakthroughs can follow related research threads on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Myriam Heiman named director of The Picower Institute for Learning and Memory](https://daily.dev/posts/myriam-heiman-named-director-of-the-picower-institute-for-learning-and-memory-gr6tzg7ex) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Professor Emeritus Robert Cohen, pioneering polymers researcher and devoted mentor, dies at 79](https://daily.dev/posts/professor-emeritus-robert-cohen-pioneering-polymers-researcher-and-devoted-mentor-dies-at-79-wfpnewkun) · MIT News · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Quantum Design Oxford Announces Winner of the 2026 Nicholas Kurti Science Prize](https://daily.dev/posts/quantum-design-oxford-announces-winner-of-the-2026-nicholas-kurti-science-prize-0vmp5cpfp) · The Quantum Insider · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [My friend Mark Wise](https://daily.dev/posts/my-friend-mark-wise-boqlftp3e) · Quantum Frontiers · 1 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#mit](https://daily.dev/tags/mit) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/mit-professor-susumu-tonegawa-renowned-molecular-biologist-and-nobel-laureate-dies-at-86-fvy69v4op) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"MIT Professor Susumu Tonegawa, renowned molecular biologist and Nobel laureate, dies at 86","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/mit-professor-susumu-tonegawa-renowned-molecular-biologist-and-nobel-laureate-dies-at-86-fvy69v4op","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/mit-professor-susumu-tonegawa-renowned-molecular-biologist-and-nobel-laureate-dies-at-86-fvy69v4op"},"datePublished":"2026-07-15T19:02:12.144Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T06:24:57.083Z","description":"Susumu Tonegawa, the Picower Professor of Biology and Neuroscience at MIT and 1987 Nobel laureate, died July 11 at age 86. 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