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Events on Saturday 11 July 2026 3
1939 – 2026Susumu TonegawaJapanese Molecular BiologistJapanese molecular biologist who was awarded the 1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering V(D)J recombination, the genetic mechanism by which the immune system generates millions of different antibodies from a limited set of genes. Born in Nagoya, he solved one of biology's oldest puzzles while working in Switzerland, then spent over 40 years at MIT, where he reinvented himself as a neuroscientist pioneering the use of optogenetics to identify and manipulate memory cells in the brain.
1955 – 2026Lindsey Graham (1955-2026)Died 11 July 2026, aged 71American Republican senator for South Carolina from 2003 until his death, a leading Senate voice on defence and foreign affairs.
2026Susumu Tonegawa dies in San Mateo, CaliforniaDied in San Mateo, California, at the age of 86. MIT's Picower Institute, which he had founded and directed, described him as one of the most intellectually fearless scientists of his generation.