Did you know that for your health, your body eats the body?
Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of autophagy, which refers to how our cells destroy and recycle their own unhealthy contents.

It was observed that the cell can destroy its own unhealthy contents by forming cell membranes. It was also observed that unhealthy cell parts are transported to a recycling compartment called lysosome and recycled. Researchers first observed this in the 1960s.
The concept of automation emerged.

However, this phenomenon was difficult to study until the 1990s, when Ohsumi conducted a series of groundbreaking experiments with baker’s yeast to identify genes involved in autophagy. He explained the mechanisms for autophagy in yeast and discovered that a similar mechanism is used in our cells.

His findings deepened the understanding of how cells recycle their contents to stay healthy.
This has broadened understanding of the causes of certain chronic diseases, neurodegenerative diseases and cancer, the ability of cells to manage malnutrition and infection.

Read more about his work: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2016/ohsumi/biographical/