JAPAN and the WORLD Magazine OCTOBER ISSUE 2016 #Issue 17 | Page 15

HEALTH
INTRODUCTION
YOSHINORI OHSUMI
大隅良典
Yoshinori Ohsumi, was born on the
9 th of February, 1945 in Fukuoka.
He received a Ph.D. from the
University of Tokyo in 1974.
After spending three years at
Rockefeller University, New York,
USA, he returned to the University
of Tokyo where he established his
research group in 1988. He is since
2009 a professor at the Tokyo
Institute of Technology.
He is the fourth, in his field
to become a Japanese Nobel
Laureate.
大隅良典教授は1945年2月9日に福岡
で生まれた。
1974年東京大学で博士号を取得し、
アメリカ・ニューヨークのロックフェラ
ー大学で3年間を過ごした後、東京大
学に戻り、1988年に研究室を立ち上
げた。2009年より東京工業大学の教
授を務めている。
同分野では４人目の日本人ノーベル
賞受賞となった。
This year’s winner for the Japanese
Nobel Prize in Physiology and
Medicine is Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Cell
biologist from the Tokyo Institute
of Technology, on his discoveries of
mechanisms for Autophagy.
今年のノーベル生理学・医学賞は、オ
ートファジーの仕組みを解明した、東
京工業大学細胞生物学者の大隅良典
氏が受賞。
M
R. YOSHINORI OHSUMI, an
Honorable Professor at the
Tokyo Institute of Technology
in Tokyo is this year’s Nobel
Prize winner for Physiology
(Medicine) for discovering and elucidating
mechanisms for autophagy, a fundamental
process for degrading and recycling cellular
components. Professor Ohsumi admitted
that he never dreamed that his study of yeast
would someday “serve any practical purposes”
when he started it alone 28 years ago.
The word autophagy originates from the Greek
words auto-, meaning “self”, and phagein,
meaning “to eat”, hence, “self-eating”.
Autophagy is the process by which cells
capture large dysfunctional proteins, aging
organelles, and invading pathogens in vesicles
and then send them to the lysosome for
degradation. Without autophagy our cells
won’t survive. During starvation, cells break
down proteins and nonessential components
and reuse them for energy. Cells also use
autophagy to destroy invading viruses and
bacteria, sending them off for recycling. And
cells use autophagy to get rid of damaged
structures. The process is thought to go awry
in cancer, infectious diseases, immunological
diseases and neurodegenerative disorders.
Disruptions in autophagy are also thought to
play a role in aging.
The work of
Professor Ohsumi
led to a new field and
inspired hundreds of
researchers around
the world to study the
process and opened a
new area of inquiry.
YOSHINORI OHSUMI
Although the concept emerged during
the 1960’s, nobody knew how the system
worked.
In a series of experiments in the early
1990’s, Yoshinori Ohsumi used baker’s yeast
to identify genes essential for autophagy.
Disrupted autophagy has been linked to
Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes and
other disorders that appear in the elderly.
Intense research is now ongoing to develop
drugs that can target autophagy in various
diseases. The work of Professor Ohsumi
led to a new field and inspired hundreds of
researchers around the world to study the
process and opened a new area of inquiry.
During a news
conference, Professor
said that in Japan today
scientists often face
pressure to achieve
quick results “that are
useful for something”.
He admitted that the
total amount of public
funds allocated for
fundamental scientific
research in Japan is
“absolutely insufficient.”
During a news conference, Professor said
that in Japan today scientists often face
pressure to achieve quick results “that are
useful for something”. He admitted that the
total amount of public funds allocated for
fundamental scientific research in Japan is
“absolutely insufficient.”
“I have a strong sense of crisis. Science
in Japan will ‘hollow out’” unless support
systems are established to boost long-term
research, he said.
“In that sense, Japanese universities are very
poor,” he said.
Mr. Yoshinori Ohsumi, who is also known
for his love for Sake (Japanese rice wine)
also joked about how hard it was for his
wife to believe him when he got news of
him being the winner of the Japanese Nobel
prize for Physiology.
Being a joker after a couple glasses of
good Sake, he would always tell funny and
sometimes incredible stories.
And him being the Nobel Prize winner
sounded like just another one of his many
interesting tales.
OCTOBER 2016 // 15