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2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi [pdf]
- dekhn 10y agoI wish they'd rename the prize to "Nobel Prize in Fundamental Biology". Medicine is important but this is clearly a fundamental biology discovery.
- stealthefocus 10y agoThis leans more to the physiology side of the prize I believe.
- dekhn 10y agoright I'm saying that 'biology' is a more appropriate term than physiology.
- 1457389 10y agoExcept it's not. Autophagy as a process happens at the cellular level but the whole reason it's important is because it has emergent ramifications for the entire living organism, impacting on metabolism, senescence, carcinogenesis and a number of other endpoints that operate at organismal scale. Your characterisation of this as "fundamental biology" obscures this emergence. Appropriateness aside, I think the real reason we don't have a Nobel for Biology is probably a result of the fact that Alfred Nobel cared more about the pursuit of knowledge for the betterment of the human condition, rather than for its own sake. I imagine he learned the limitations of the latter approach the hard way through personal experience considering his most (in)famous invention...
- dekhn 10y agoPeople on my thread are missing my point: I meant the prize should be renamed to be more general; I'm not criticizing the categorization of autophagy as physiology at all.
- cowsandmilk 10y agoWhy? This is clearly physiology (how living systems function). And physiology is a field of biology. Biology also includes things like the dynamics of ecosystems and classification of organisms. Physiology is a more descriptive term for this work. You could argue this is "cell biology", but that's just a claim that these fields are exclusive of each other; much modern physiological work is now understanding the underlying molecular processes (maybe it is molecular biology?). His work on molecular mechanisms has brought better understanding of higher level processes in the body and traditional "physiologic" mechanisms.
- dekhn 10y agoThis specific prize awards something which is physiology. I meant that the prize itself should be renamed to biology because physiology is-a biology and the prize often is awarded to things that are biology rather than medicine or physiology which are highly specific.
- vibrio 10y agoThe physiology/fundamental biology is the area that needs /deserves the academic praise and where the public support and attention will do the most good. The application of that information by Pharmaceutical companies and physicians is often (not always) much more routine and intellectually incremental. This ia a great choice for the prize. I fully acknowledge that I'm very biased as a 'scientist type'.
- jhbadger 10y agoYes and no. You can argue that genetics of autophagy are fundamental but it is clear that the prize is being given in recognition of the fact that this led to better understanding of neurodegenerative disorders and so on. For better or worse, the Nobel doesn't really go to discoveries that don't have applications somehow.
- dekhn 10y agoIt's disappointing that the "prize is being giving in recognization ... better understanding of neurodegenerative diseases". My point is that I think the prize itself should honor scientific achievements, rather than medical ones, and that this discovery, on its own, stands as a fundamental biological understanding. That it helped understand neurodegenerative disorders is ancillary, and unecessary to justify the prize.
- zhemao 10y agoAlfred Nobel apparently disagreed, and it's still the interest on the money bequeathed by his will that funds the prize. So it's unlikely that the name will be changed.
- dekhn 10y agoNeither kind of restriction is applied to the physics or chemistry prize (they do not require some sort of nebulous "medical benefit" to qualify).
- zhemao 10y agoI'm not talking about the medical benefit, I'm talking about the name specifically. His will stated that there should be prizes for chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine.
- jharohit 10y agoNot to CRISPR - again!...
- chewymouse 10y agoWhile CRISPR is an incredible technology with plenty of current exposure, the Nobel Prize in Medicine tends to move slowly; often discoveries that first debuted 20 years ago are only finally recognized. CRISPR will have its day in the Nobel sun, but unlikely in this decade.
- bbctol 10y agoI think we'll wait until a practical application sees adoption before handing out Nobels.
- zhemao 10y agoThe Nobel Prizes in science are generally awarded a few decades after the fact. That gives enough time for the impact of the work to become clear.
- julienchastang 10y agoDon't give up hope, yet. CRISPR could be awarded for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. The Ribozyme discovery was a Chemistry Nobel [1]. And, yes, Nobels take decades to come to fruition. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribozyme https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribozyme
- 10y ago
- nibs 10y agoIn case anyone is interested in the personal implications of this, this is part the mechanism by which intermittent fasting gains it's health benefits. People have fasted for 16-48 hours and gained benefits through history but what is happening in the body is really ketosis + autophagy. Most people in the modern world eat too frequently to benefit from autophagy, but men (16 hours of fasting) and women (14 hours of fasting) can both benefit from the 3-4x faster cell recycling and potential life extension properties. More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autophagy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autophagy
- nonbel 10y ago>"3-4x faster cell recycling" What is "cell recycling"?
- tomjakubowski 10y agoMost of the news outlets reporting on this are using that term, which must have appeared in a press release. I think it's just a layman-friendly version of "autophagy".
- lvs 10y agoPlease, everyone in the IT/CS world, ridiculous health "benefit" claims are in fact the origin of the term "snake oil." There is no accepted guidance from the biomedical community regarding fasting that draws a link to autophagy. Please keep your completely unscientific and unfounded health "benefit" claims to yourself.