BMJ 2016;355:i5374 doi: 10.1136/bmj.i5374 (Published 4 October 2016)
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NEWS Japanese cellular biologist wins Nobel prize for study of autophagy Michael McCarthy Seattle
Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese cellular biologist, has been awarded the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for his work elucidating how cells break down and recycle obsolete or damaged macromolecules and organelles. The process—called autophagy, from the Greek words auto and phagein, meaning “self eating”—has a vital role in cellular metabolism in health and disease.
“Autophagy has been known for over 50 years,” the Nobel committee noted in its announcement of the award, “but its fundamental importance in physiology and medicine was only recognised after Yoshinori Ohsumi’s paradigm shifting research in the 1990s.” The award, announced on 3 October in Stockholm, comes with a cheque for Swedish Kr8m (£725 000; $933 000; $950 000). In the 1950s Christian de Duve, a Belgian scientist, discovered that cells had specialised compartments, called lysosomes, which contained enzymes that enabled them to digest internal proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. For this discovery de Duve was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974. De Duve dubbed this process, by which cells cannibalise their cellular contents for re-use “autophagy,” but just how cells packaged and delivered materials to the lysosomes remained unclear. Ohsumi, 71, was born in 1945 in Fukuoka, Japan. He obtained his PhD from the University of Tokyo and trained for three years at Rockefeller University in New York City before returning to the University of Tokyo in 1988 to open his own research group, where he began his study of autophagy. At the time only a handful of laboratories were working in the field.
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Ohsumi chose to use the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisae as a model organism, and in 1993 published a seminal paper in which he identified and characterised the 15 key genes involved in the process.1 In subsequent work he further explored how autophagy was initiated and the process by which materials were engulfed in bodies, called autophagosomes, and delivered to lysosomes for digestion. Through his work and that of others, we now know that, in addition to ridding cells of aged and damaged proteins, autophagy generates fuel and building blocks for cellular renewal and repair, helps in the elimination of infections by intracellular bacteria and viruses, and has key roles in embryonic development and cell differentiation. Several autosomal recessive human diseases are associated with impaired autophagy, including brain malformations, developmental delay, intellectual disability, epilepsy, movement disorders, and neurodegeneration. Impaired autophagy has also been associated with several diseases associated with ageing, including type 2 diabetes and cancer. In an interview on the Nobel committee website conducted after learning he had been awarded the Nobel prize, Ohsumi noted that since he began his work 27 years ago the number of papers being published on autophagy had grown from less that 20 a year to more than 5000. “Still we have so many questions. Even now we have more questions than when I started,” Ohsumi said. 1
Tsukada M, Ohsumi Y. Isolation and characterization of autophagy-defective mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. FEBS Lett 1993;333:169-74. doi:10.1016/0014-5793(93) 80398-E pmid:8224160.
Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/ permissions
Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
Page 1 of 1
News
NEWS Japanese cellular biologist wins Nobel prize for study of autophagy Michael McCarthy Seattle
Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese cellular biologist, has been awarded the Nobel prize in physiology or medicine for his work elucidating how cells break down and recycle obsolete or damaged macromolecules and organelles. The process—called autophagy, from the Greek words auto and phagein, meaning “self eating”—has a vital role in cellular metabolism in health and disease.
“Autophagy has been known for over 50 years,” the Nobel committee noted in its announcement of the award, “but its fundamental importance in physiology and medicine was only recognised after Yoshinori Ohsumi’s paradigm shifting research in the 1990s.” The award, announced on 3 October in Stockholm, comes with a cheque for Swedish Kr8m (£725 000; $933 000; $950 000). In the 1950s Christian de Duve, a Belgian scientist, discovered that cells had specialised compartments, called lysosomes, which contained enzymes that enabled them to digest internal proteins, carbohydrates, and lipids. For this discovery de Duve was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1974. De Duve dubbed this process, by which cells cannibalise their cellular contents for re-use “autophagy,” but just how cells packaged and delivered materials to the lysosomes remained unclear. Ohsumi, 71, was born in 1945 in Fukuoka, Japan. He obtained his PhD from the University of Tokyo and trained for three years at Rockefeller University in New York City before returning to the University of Tokyo in 1988 to open his own research group, where he began his study of autophagy. At the time only a handful of laboratories were working in the field.
For personal use only: See rights and reprints http://www.bmj.com/permissions
Ohsumi chose to use the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisae as a model organism, and in 1993 published a seminal paper in which he identified and characterised the 15 key genes involved in the process.1 In subsequent work he further explored how autophagy was initiated and the process by which materials were engulfed in bodies, called autophagosomes, and delivered to lysosomes for digestion. Through his work and that of others, we now know that, in addition to ridding cells of aged and damaged proteins, autophagy generates fuel and building blocks for cellular renewal and repair, helps in the elimination of infections by intracellular bacteria and viruses, and has key roles in embryonic development and cell differentiation. Several autosomal recessive human diseases are associated with impaired autophagy, including brain malformations, developmental delay, intellectual disability, epilepsy, movement disorders, and neurodegeneration. Impaired autophagy has also been associated with several diseases associated with ageing, including type 2 diabetes and cancer. In an interview on the Nobel committee website conducted after learning he had been awarded the Nobel prize, Ohsumi noted that since he began his work 27 years ago the number of papers being published on autophagy had grown from less that 20 a year to more than 5000. “Still we have so many questions. Even now we have more questions than when I started,” Ohsumi said. 1
Tsukada M, Ohsumi Y. Isolation and characterization of autophagy-defective mutants of Saccharomyces cerevisiae. FEBS Lett 1993;333:169-74. doi:10.1016/0014-5793(93) 80398-E pmid:8224160.
Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/ permissions
Subscribe: http://www.bmj.com/subscribe
