Curing cancer: an interview with Dr Tasuku Honjo

Dr Tasuku Honjo has a mission: find a cure for cancer. In 1992 he discovered a gene that is key to the human body’s immune response. Now, 25 years later, that work has been instrumental in the development of immunotherapy – a new technique Dr Honjo believes could one day do for cancer what the discovery of penicillin did for infectious diseases in 1928.

In 2016, Dr Honjo won the prestigious Kyoto Prize for Life Sciences, and this week he and the other laureates were at the Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University to discuss their work. I was lucky enough to catch up with him in between lectures for a very special episode of the Reaction podcast.

You can find out more about Dr Honjo’s work, the Kyoto Prize, and Blavatnik School of Government at Oxford University by visiting www.kyotoprize.ox.ac.uk.

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