Ohsumi, Yoshinori (1945-…), a Japanese biochemist, won the 2016 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his research into how living cells break down and reuse vital substances. Biochemistry is the study of the chemical processes that take place in all living things.
Ohsumi studied organelles called vacuoles in yeast cells. An organelle is a small organlike structure within a cell that has a specialized function. Certain yeast vacuoles contain specialized chemicals for breaking down food particles. Ohsumi discovered and described how vacuoles also break down worn out proteins and nonessential components of the cell itself. The cell can then reuse the broken-down materials for energy and growth. In physiology, this process is called autophagy, from Greek words meaning self eating. Autophagous organelles similar to the yeast vacuole are found in the cells of nearly all living things.
Ohsumi was born on Feb. 9, 1945, in Fukuoka, on the island of Kyushu, in southwest Japan. He studied molecular biology at the University of Tokyo, earning his doctorate degree in 1974. After conducting research at Rockefeller University in New York City, he returned to the University of Tokyo and later moved to the National Institute for Basic Biology, in Okazaki, Japan, near Nagoya. In 2009, Ohsumi began conducting research at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
