Science View

The Leading Edge: How Autophagy Supports Vital Activity (2018x3)

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This program focuses on the research of Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, who has been selected to receive the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on "autophagy". Dr. Ohsumi found that autophagy is essential to maintaining vital activities in the body as it recycles amino acids that are the building blocks for proteins inside the cell. It is thought that a malfunction with autophagy is a factor in disorders such as Parkinson's disease, and scientists are hoping that this research will lead to the development of preventative measures and new treatment methods.