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The Nobel Prize is given for new knowledge, not for discoveries
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
This year, it was decided to award the Nobel Prize not for achievements in diagnostics, treatment, not for the discovery of new drugs, viruses, bacteria, etc., but for gaining new knowledge.
The award was given to the molecular biologist Esinori Osumi (Japan), who discovered the mechanisms of autophagy (cell death). It is worth noting that a few years ago for this study, the Nobel Prize was awarded to 3 scientists who made a discovery in the field of genetic studies and mechanisms of apotosis.
The current Nobel laureate today is 71 years old and for several long years he investigated the gradual deterioration of the properties of proteins due to autophagy. The works of Professor Osumi are marked by various prestigious prizes, including the International Biology Prize awarded on behalf of the Emperor of Japan.
Despite the fact that Professor Osumi did not create a medicine for eternal youth, he was able to explain how exactly death comes, and this, in turn, will provide scientists with new opportunities in order to slow the aging process of the body.
In the cell, in the process of vital activity, certain processes occur, incl. In it, irreversible damage also accumulates. With severe damage, the process of autophagy is started - the destruction of abnormal proteins. Self-destructive processes of the cell were described back in the 1960s, but until the early 1990s, scientists could not figure out all the details of this process. It was in those years that Professor Osumi began experimenting with baker's yeast, and as a result, he identified the genes necessary to start the process of cell destruction. His further works were also related to autophagy - on the example of yeast, Professor Osumi showed that similar processes occur in human cells.
The discovery of Osumi changed the understanding of how the cell rework its own content and showed the importance of autophagy in a variety of physiological processes.
For the human body, this process is very important - autophagy begins to work the beginning of embryo development and further provides fuel and protein to the cell blocks, which helps the body adapt to hunger and stress. Also, when infected with viruses or bacteria, autophagy gives a signal to eliminate infected cells, in addition, this process is extremely important for counteracting the aging processes, which at some point begin in our body.
Aging, according to a number of scientists, begins if the processes of autophagy are violated in the body, also failure can provoke diseases of the nervous system and cancer, cause Parkinson's disease, diabetes and other senile diseases, and mutations in genes lead to genetic diseases.
Now, various scientists are working on creating new drugs that would multiply or renew the processes of autophagy if necessary - and this would be impossible without Professor Osumi's many years of research.