Japanese scientist wins Nobel Prize in medicine for autophagy discovery

Japanese biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi has won this year's Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery on how cells in the body break down and recycle protein.

Ohsumi, 71, a professor emeritus at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, demonstrated how the mechanism known as "autophagy" can degrade and recycle defective proteins, with the discovery having monumental implications for the development of treatments for a number of illnesses, including cancer, Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, and other neurological conditions.

Ohsumi's discoveries have "led to a new paradigm in our understanding of how the cell recycles its content. 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," the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute said in a statement on Monday, as quoted by local media here.

Ohsumi is the fourth Japanese national to win the Nobel in Physiology or Medicine and the 25th Japanese to have won a Nobel Prize.

The scientist, a native of Fukuoka city in southwestern Japan, told Kyodo News he was "truly honored" after hearing he had been announced as this year's prize winner. Enditem