Japan's Ohsumi wins Nobel for studies of cell 'self-eating' read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/1121-japan-s-ohsumi-wins-nobel-for-studies-of-cell-self-eating

Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded this year's Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries related to the degrading and recycling of cellular components.

The Karolinska Institute honored Ohsumi for "brilliant experiments" in the 1990s on autophagy, the "self-eating" process with which cells break down and recycle some of their content.

[Image Source: Nobel Prize ]

Yoshinori Ohsumi, 71, from Fukuoka, Japan, is a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. In 2012, Ohsumi won the Kyoto Prize, Japan's highest private award for global achievement.

"Ohsumi's discoveries led to a new paradigm in our understanding of how the cell recycles its content," the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute said in a statement on awarding the prize of 8 million Swedish crowns (S$1.3 million).

The announcements continue with physics on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday. The economics and literature awards will be announced next week.

Nobel committee secretary Thomas Perlmann said Ohsumi seemed surprised when he was informed he had won the Nobel Prize. "The first thing he said was 'ahhh.' He was very, very pleased," Perlmann said.