Jonathan Wilhoite Blog: Nobel Prize Given For Research In Recycling Of Cellular Components

Tuesday, October 4, 2016

Nobel Prize Given For Research In Recycling Of Cellular Components

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He is a Japanese biologist who discovered one of the most important key mechanisms of our body’s defense system. This is related to the degrading and recycling parts of the cells also known as autophagy. The process proved to be very important in diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, Type 2 diabetes, as well as other prevalent diseases.

According to The Washington Post, Ohsumi conducted an experiment involving baker’s yeast. The Stockholm committee said that he was able to discover how a cell reacts to situations such as starvation and infection. The biologist studied thousands of yeast mutants and he recognized 15 genes which are crucial for autophagy. It just happened that the same systems exist within the human cells too.

The Nobel committee wrote, “His discoveries opened the path to understanding the fundamental importance of autophagy in many physiological processes, such as in the adaptation to starvation or response to infection. Mutations in autophagy genes can cause disease, and the autophagic process is involved in several conditions including cancer and neurological disease.”

In Greek, autophagy means “self-eating”. This involves cell renewal which in turn removes the damaged proteins and organelles in a system. If this fails, it results to faster cell aging and diseases related to the aging process. On the other hand, if “too much” autophagy occurs, it advances tumour cell growth in cancer and develops a treatment-resistant system.

The 71-year-old biologist calls the Nobel Prize, “greatest source of joy and pride” for a scientist. In an interview with NHK, a Japanese network, he said: “Looking into bodily processes, I found that we have an ongoing renewal process without which living organisms can’t survive.” Ohsumi continued, “This recycling process did not receive as much attention as it deserved, but I discovered that we should be paying more attention to this autophagy process.”

The Nobel committee stated that the process of autophagy has been in existence for 50 years. It’s just that its medical importance only became distinguished after Ohsumi’s ground-breaking research.

The prestigious award was founded by Alfred Nobel 115 years ago. The laureate will receive a prize worth almost a million dollars.

Image Credit: Tokyo Institute Of Technology

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