Japanese scientist Yoshinori Ohsumi was awarded this year's Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discovering the mechanisms of autophagy.
The Karolinska Institute of Stockholm honored Ohsumi for "brilliant experiments" in the 1990s on autophagy, the machinery with which cells recycle their content.
Autophagy is a "fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components", according to the Karolinska Institute.
The word autophagy originates from two Greek words which literally means “self-eating”.
Ohsumi located the genes that regulate this "self eating" process.
Disrupted autophagy has been linked to various diseases including Parkinson's, diabetes and cancer, the institute said.
Though the concept has been known for more than 50 years, its "fundamental importance in physiology and medicine was only recognized after Yoshinori Ohsumi's paradigm-shifting research in the 1990s," Karolinska said in its citation.
"Mutations in autophagy genes can cause disease, and the autophagic process is involved in several conditions including cancer and neurological disease," the jury said.
The prize committee often awards discoveries that were made decades ago, to make sure that they're still relevant.
Ohsumi was born in 1945 in Fukuoka, Japan. He is currently a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology.
It was the 107th award in the medicine category since the first Nobel Prizes were handed out in 1905.
Last year's prize was shared by three scientists who developed treatments for malaria and other tropical diseases.
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.
Each prize is worth 8 million kronor ($930,000).
(With AP inputs)
