Japanese scientist wins Nobel for study of cell recycling

NEW YORK -- Like a busy city, a cell works better if it can dispose of and recycle its garbage. Now a Japanese scientist has won the Nobel Prize in medicine for showing how that happens.

The research may pay off in treatments for diseases such as cancer, Parkinson's and Type 2 diabetes.

Yoshinori Ohsumi, 71, of the Tokyo Institute of Technology, was cited Monday for "brilliant experiments" that illuminated autophagy, in which cells gobble up damaged or worn-out pieces of themselves. Autophagy means "self-eating."

That process helps keep cells healthy by producing nutrients and building blocks for renewal, making way for new cellular structures and clearing out invading germs and clumps of proteins that could cause disease.

Abnormalities in autophagy occur in several diseases, including Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, diabetes and cancer, and more than 40 studies in humans are underway to test drugs to boost or depress the process, Nobel officials said.

Cancer cells, for example, take advantage of autophagy to promote their own survival.

Many research groups are exploring a strategy of fighting the disease by reducing these cells' use of the cleanup process, said Eileen White, a researcher at the Rutgers Cancer Institute in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Ohsumi said he never thought he would win a Nobel for his work, which involved studying yeast under the microscope day after day for decades.

"As a boy, the Nobel Prize was a dream, but after starting my research, it was out of my picture," he told reporters in Tokyo.

"I don't feel comfortable competing with many people, and instead, I find it more enjoyable doing something nobody else is doing," Ohsumi added. "In a way, that's what science is all about, and the joy of finding something inspires me."

The prize is worth $930,000.

Ohsumi was honored for work he did in the 1990s. Nobel judges often award discoveries made decades ago to make sure they have stood the test of time.

Working in yeast, Ohsumi developed a way to identify key genes involved in autophagy and went on to discover the first genes known to play a role.

He then showed how autophagy is controlled by specific proteins and complexes of proteins.

"He actually unraveled which are the components which actually perform this whole process," said Rune Toftgard, chairman of the Nobel Assembly.