Professor Tetsuro Fujiwara

Tetsuro Fujiwara obtained an M.D. from Iwate Medical University in 1956 and D.M.Sc. from Tohoku University School of Medicine in 1961. Fujiwara began his career as an assistant at Tohoku University hospital in 1961. Between 1962-1964, he went on a fellowship in pediatric cardiology at the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA), then as a research assistant in pediatrics (1966-1969) at UCLA. In 1970, he was appointed an Associate Professor at Akita University School of Medicine in Morioka, and in 1981, he became a Professor and the Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at Iwate Medical University in Marioka. 

Professor Fujiwara’s interest in neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), associated with the so-called “hyaline membrane disease,” started from the early years of his career. This disease was the most frequent cause of death of newborn babies, accounting for hundreds of thousands of deaths annually worldwide. Over a period of 15 years, he carried out joint physiologic and biochemical studies with Professor Forrest H. Adams at UCLA on premature animals and premature infants, which confirmed that the fundamental problem in RDS was the lack of a material known as “surfactant” in the lungs of premature babies. Without this material, a newborn baby could not breathe normally at birth, and must be provided with the surfactant as soon as possible, if there was to be any chance for its survival.

After initial studies with natural surfactant extracted from animals, Fujiwara developed an effective synthetic surfactant for surfactant replacement therapy in premature infants with RDS. Subsequent clinical studies by Fujiwara and his group confirmed the value of synthetic pulmonary surfactant therapy in restoring mechanical properties of the lungs, thereby leading to a marked improvement in gas exchange and oxygenation. The group also developed the “microtubule test” for prediction of RDS based on testing the amniotic fluid from the mother or gastric aspirate from the neonate.

Professor Fujiwara authored and co-authored hundreds of research papers and more than 90 books. He received the Japan Medical Association Award for Promotion of Medical Research in 1981, the Japanese Pediatric Society Prize, and the Nippon Culture Award in 1987. He is a member of several medical and scientific societies, including: the Japanese Pediatric Society, the Japan Society of Neonatology, the Japan Medical Association and the Japan Medical Society for Biological Interface. He is also an Honorary Member of the Italian Society of Prenatal Medicine, Advisor to the International Pediatric Society and Member of the editorial board of the European Journal of Pediatrics.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.