Born: 28 September 1926, Japan
Died: 4 June 2019
Country most active: United States
Also known as: 石坂 照子, Ishizaka Teruko, Terry
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
Dr. Teruko Ishizaka earned her medical degree at Tokyo Women’s Medical University in 1949, followed by a Ph.D. in medical science from the University of Tokyo in 1957 and postdoctoral training at the California Institute of Technology from 1957 to 1959. Working with her husband, she co-discovered allergen-specific antibody proteins called immunoglobulin E (or IgE), publishing their findings in 1966, the year she turned 40, in the Journal of Immunology. Their research at the Children’s Asthma Research Institute and Hospital in Denver defined a new class of antibodies that trigger allergic reactions.
Later, the Ishizakas found that IgE proteins trigger allergic responses by binding to mast cells, a type of white blood cell, causing them to release histamine, which causes the physiological symptoms associated with allergies. Today, routine blood tests used to validate an allergic response are based on the levels of IgE antibodies in response to potential allergens. The couple continued their allergy research for decades, with Teruko publishing more than 100 papers and reviews in the field, most of those with her husband, over the span of an almost 40-year career.