Yoshinori Ohsumi wins Nobel Prize for research on autophagy

October 6, 2016

On Monday, in Stockholm, Japanese cell biologist of  won this year's Nobel Prize in the field of physiology or medicine for his research on. Ohsumi is the 25th Nobel laureate from Japan. 71-year-old Yoshinori Ohsumi studied mechanisms of autophagy &mdash; a process in which eat parts of themselves and recycle the cell components.

This phenomenon was observed in the 1960s with the discovery of, which contain enzymes to digest cell content. For that discovery, Belgian scientist was subsequently honoured with the 1974 Nobel Prize in the same category. Ohsumi conducted a series of experiments with in the 1990s and identified fifteen genes needed for autophagy.

Ohsumi applied the same mechanism to understand the process in humans. Autophagy is an important phenomenon whose failure through gene mutation may be involved in type 2, , and neurological disorders such as.

The committee said Ohsumi's discoveries have helped to understand "the fundamental importance of autophagy in many processes, such as in the adaptation to starvation or response to infection."

In remarks to Japanese broadcasting company, Ohsumi said he was honoured to be recognised by the Nobel committee. Japanese Prime Minister congratulated Ohsumi and said.

Ohsumi's research also earned him a 2015 Canada Gairdner International Award in March 2015. Ohsumi is to receive 8 million (95 million) in the Nobel awards ceremony scheduled on December 10.