Prof.Yoshinori Osumi is, a 1945 born Japanese cell-biologist, who won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the year 2016. He was honored for his vital discoveries on the mechanism of Autophagy. The word ‘Autophagy ‘comes from two Greek words, which means ‘Self-Eating’. Autophagy is the elementary process which controls the important physiological functions of our body. Our Body degrades its protein and other components in order to provide the adequate energy supply in situations like starvation and stress. Also it handles and reprocesses external bodies entering the system and helps in getting rid of spoiled structures. This system is termed as Autophagy. The self-degradation system of cells is known to the world of science since long time.

A variation in this systematic process is expected with the incidence of cancer, and other diseases. Till now the researchers knew that autophagy happens, but exactly how and specifically which genes are responsible and involved, was unknown. Yoshinori Ohsumi discovered the working of autophagy by first studying the process in yeast cells and identified the essential genes causing it. Later he showed that a similar process occurs in human cells.His discovery can contribute to the development of cure for Alzheimer’s, Cancer, Parkinson’s disease, etc. Prof.Yoshinori Ohsumi believes that the popularity of the subject should not be a concern in taking it up for the study and starting from the basic always bestow new observation and theories which have a lot to act on.In his  opinion ,the essence of science, which really makes it so much fun, is to do what others aren’t doing, rather than doing what everyone else in the pack is flocking to. Prof.Yoshinori Osumi is a true legend and will be an inspiration to the entire world.