TOKYO Yoshinori Osumi's research revealing how cells recycle components such as proteins has earned the Japanese biologist the 2016 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, and his work could hold the key to new treatments for cancer and Parkinson's disease.
Osumi, an honorary professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, "discovered and elucidated mechanisms underlying autophagy, a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components," the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institutet said on Oct. 3 in announcing the award.
