Toshifumi Nakao Receives “Society Award for Prominent Achievement in Research” from Pesticide Science Society of Japan

Mitsui Chemicals Inc. (Tokyo: 4183; President & CEO: Tsutomu Tannowa) announced that Toshifumi Nakao, a chief scientist at its wholly owned subsidiary Mitsui Chemicals Agro, Inc. (President: Kazunori Tani), was awarded the FY2015 “Society Award for Achievement in Research” from the Pesticide Science Society of Japan for his research in “Study on Structure and Insecticide Sensitivity of RDL GABA Receptor".

In recent years, agricultural pests with drug resistance to insecticides using fipronil have become a global problem. Attempting to resolve this issue, Toshifumi Nakao, using advanced gene recombination technology and ingenious analysis technology, became the world’s first scientist to determine that this resistance was the result of a mutation of specific amino acids in specific proteins.

The Pesticide Science Society of Japan not only focuses on the development of pesticides but also contributes to environmental and life sciences. It is the only Japanese society devoted to the comprehensive study of crop protection and agricultural chemicals. Although the Society’s coveted awards are rarely presented to corporate scientists, the Society recognized Toshifumi Nakao’s research, which had received wide acclaim and high evaluation from scientists around the world.

Mitsui Chemicals Agro continues to conduct research on drug resistant agricultural pests and has already developed highly effective insecticides for use against agricultural pests with drug resistance to fipronil with proprietary methodology employing mechanisms that differ from current insecticides such as fipronil.

The Mitsui Chemicals Group, as a solution provider, aims to contribute to better lifestyles and a safer environment worldwide through improved crop production and safer and more effective agricultural chemicals which capitalize on its proprietary and world class research and development capabilities.