Ohsumi said that all his research findings began with a love of the microscope.
“You can answer the most basic and important questions about the nature of life through yeasts,”
The 2016 Nobel Prize for Medicine is awarded to Japanese researcher, Yoshinori Ohsumi,
who studies how the cell processes metabolic wastes. Osumi studies how cells detoxify and repair themselves.
“Although autophagy has been known for over 50 years, its importance wasn’t recognized until Dr. Ohsumi published his research on the subject in the 1990s.
Dr. Ohsumi said he focused his research on a subject that initially drew little interest from other scientists.
“My basic principle is that I want to do things that other people aren’t doing,” Dr. Ohsumi told national broadcaster NHK shortly after the award was announced.”
