Scientist and Professor Shizuo Akira, from the University of Osaka (Japan), gave the inaugural lecture at the third meeting of the School of Biomedicine organised by the Institute of Biomedicine of Seville (IBiS) and the Menéndez Pelayo International University (UIMP) of Seville, before which he received the 2017 Distinguished Researcher Award from the Director of IBIS and the Managing Director of the Virgen del Rocío Hospital.
Prof. Akira spoke on "Role of macrophages to the development of fibrosis", being the most cited scientist in the world and was recognised in 2006 and 2007 as the person with the highest number of relevant articles, receiving numerous distinctions. He has made major contributions in the field of innate immunity, in particular, he has made an extraordinary contribution to the understanding of the function of a series of sensors in the cells of the immune system called TLRs.
