Professor Ikawa died suddenly on March 7, 2006 at age 87. He joined the UNH faculty after stints at the Universities of California (Berkeley), Texas (Austin), and Wisconsin (Madison). He served on the Biochemistry Faculty for >20 years, and after his retirement in 1986, continued his research as an Adjunct Professor of Zoology for another 20 years. He authored, or co-authored, more than 150 scientific publications. Early papers came from the laboratory of Nobelist Linus Pauling at Cal Tech, but he is especially remembered for the isolation of blood thinning factors from sweet clover, and the synthesis of Coumadin, or Warfarin, in Karl Link’s laboratory at Wisconsin. Coumadin is still widely used to treat thrombosis and other blood clotting maladies, and a bronze plaque commemorating this historical work is proudly displayed on the University of Wisconsin campus. At UNH, Dr. Ikawa’s interests turned to “Products from the Sea” and he began collaborating with John Sasner, a zoologist. Research focused on chemical metabolites, particularly lipids and a variety of toxins (poisons) produced by marine organisms from a broad range of taxa. In 1972, they initiated the monitoring program for Paralytic Shellfish Poison (PSP) for the State of New Hampshire following the first “Red Tide” in the Southern Gulf of Maine. Professor Ikawa and his graduate students isolated, characterized, and identified toxins and their analogues from the Atlantic Gulfs of Maine and Mexico, USA, and also from Pacific waters during sabbaticals in Japan at the University of Tokyo. When toxic blooms of cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) appeared in NH lakes and reservoirs, he directed his expertise to the chemical nature of freshwater toxins and their impact on water quality. He found neurotoxic analogues of marine PSPs in freshwater algae that similarly blocked voltage-gated sodium channels in neurons, and showed the wide occurrence of hepatotoxins (liver toxins) in NH lakes, that are becoming problematic for water quality managers around the world. Most recently, he wrote synthesis papers in the discipline of Chemical Ecology, and some of this work can be found on the UNH Center for Freshwater Biology web site , as well as in scientific journals.

Professor Ikawa will be remembered for his careful, thorough work at the bench and his kindness to students, colleagues and collaborators. He served on numerous scientific funding panels and peer review committees for scientific journals and was a member of the American Chemical Society for more than 50 years. He also served with other world-renowned scientists, some Nobel Prize recipients, in the annual selection of the Albert Einstein World Awards of Science, given in recognition of research contributions that bring “true benefit and well being to humankind”. These words also describe Professor Ikawa’s body of work in Biochemistry that spanned almost six decades. His contributions on campus, and to the larger Biological Sciences community, quietly brought great prestige to our University in a number of ways. As Dr. Ikawa’s close friend, colleague and collaborator at UNH, I feel compelled to provide the institutional memory for his long and distinguished career.

My interests continue in marine and freshwater biotoxins, similar to those described for “Mike” Ikawa above. Whereas he focused on the chemical nature of biotoxins, and I on their physiological effects, together we formed an ideal research team. I collaborate with Jim Haney’s lab group on research in the UNH Center for Freshwater Biology (CFB) and the NH Lakes Lay Monitoring Program (LLMP) whose members study the >800 lakes, ponds, reservoirs and estuarine resources in New Hampshire. Special topics of interest include biotoxins from cyanobacteria (aka blue-green algae) that are occurring more frequently and with greater intensity in New Hampshire and around the world. Early work, with Mike Ikawa, Win Watson and talented graduate students, identified and characterized a family of nerve and muscle toxins that occur intermittently in New England lakes. Subsequently, we found other biotoxins from Microcystis blooms in nutrient enriched New Hampshire lakes, and Tom Foxall described their deleterious effects on liver tissues at the sub-cellular level. The present focus at CFB is on the occurrence and distribution of Microcystis and other cyanobacteria that produce hepatotoxins, called microcystins, in compartments of New Hampshire lakes and their effects on endemic species. Thus far, ELISA methods have demonstrated the presence of microcystins from the major lake compartments (lakewater, phyto and zooplankton, and benthic sediments) from >90 New Hampshire lakes, ponds, and reservoirs of varied trophic status. Other interests with Professor Jim Haney include how biotoxins and other secondary metabolites from cyanobacteria affect animals at several trophic levels in the food web. The goal is to understand the roles of cyanobacterial toxins (e.g., microcystins), and other secondary metabolites in aquatic systems as they may relate to eutrophication processes, aquaculture, and water safety.

Long-term academic interests are shared with Professor Win Watson and include: (1) developing learning modules to illustrate important physiological principles and the methods used to discover them, and (2) adapting experimental methods from the research lab to “hands-on” student experiences in teaching labs. The goal is to provide opportunities for students to sample biological systems, analyze data, and write lab reports, as career scientists must do. Such opportunities for undergraduate students have diminished at many institutions, thereby postponing the development of practical laboratory skills and scientific report writing to either graduate programs or the marketplace, neither of which deserves these deficiencies.

Representative Publications