Press conference for Yoshinori Ohsumi, 2016 Nobel laureate in medicine

After traveling from Suzukakedai Campus to Ookayama Campus, Ohsumi receives flowers in celebration of the award of the 2016 Nobel Prize

Following this, Tokyo Tech held a press conference at Centennial Hall of the Ookayama Campus from 8 p.m. Ohsumi appeared with Tokyo Tech President Yoshinao Mishima and Executive Vice President for Research Makoto Ando. Over 200 members of the press corps attended the press conference, where Ohsumi outlined his thoughts and happiness on receiving the prestigious award. Over the hour-long event, Ohsumi also gave a description of how autophagy works and the importance of the field for science.

This evening I was informed by the Nobel Committee that I have been selected as the 2016 recipient of the Nobel Prize. It goes without saying that there is no greater honor as a researcher than receiving this illustrious award. Over the past few years I have been fortunate to receive many unexpected awards, but the Nobel Prize has a particularly special meaning to me. I remember fancifully dreaming of receiving the Nobel Prize as a child, but once I became a researcher any thought of receiving the award completely left my consciousness as I focused on science.

As the fundamental unit of life, the question of how dynamic the cell is has always captivated my intellectual curiosity. This strong motivation led me to use yeast, the humble single-cell organism, to address some of the important basic questions of life. My work with yeast stemmed from a personal desire to undertake work that is unique and doesn't follow the intellectual trends of the day.

About 27 and a half years ago, in 1988, I had a strong interest in the practical degradative function of the vacuole in the cell. Around this time, I started my own laboratory at the College of Arts and Sciences at Tokyo University with only one member - myself - and this is where my 28 years of autophagy research began. I imagine that many people will not have heard of autophagy, but simply put the term describes the process of self-digestion of cellular proteins that occurs when yeast cells are subjected to starvation. My work started when I devised a method to capture this process using a light microscope, which is a ubiquitous piece of equipment in biological laboratories. The work of Misuzu Baba, who joined my lab and conducted electron microscopy of the process in yeast, confirmed that what we could see under the light microscope was actually exactly the same process as a phenomenon that had been observed decades earlier in mammalian cells but was never understood.

Yeast is an excellent tool for genetic analysis, so we therefore immediately began the process of identifying genes essential for autophagy to occur. Fortunately, we were able to identify many indispensable autophagy genes in a very short period of time thanks to the efforts of a graduate student who joined my lab, Miki Tsukada. Our next set of experiments revealed that these genes are in fact responsible for the membrane rearrangements that are an essential part of the autophagy process. We also found that these genes are very well conserved, and that homologues for most exist in human and plant cells. The identification of genes required for autophagy has really had a lasting impact on the quality of autophagy research that continues to this day. After that point, the mechanisms and function of autophagy genes were studied by us and numerous other researchers and laboratories around the world, with many fascinating insights that continue to emerge today.

One thing I would like to emphasize on this auspicious occasion is that when I started out, I had no idea that autophagy would be linked to cancer, other diseases or longevity. If nothing else, I want everyone to understand that the nature of fundamental research is such that it develops in ways that are sometimes not initially anticipated but have an immense and beneficial impact on society. The importance of fundamental research, which on this occasion has been recognized by the most prestigious award in science, is worth restating.

I would further like to thank the College of Arts and Science of the University of Tokyo, the School of Science at the University of Tokyo, the National Institute of Basic Biology and Tokyo Institute of Technology for giving me the opportunity to conduct research. The majority of my work over nearly three decades was supported by the Grants-in-Aid program of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and I greatly appreciate the role that funding bodies play in fundamental research. I would also like to thank two former teachers who supported me over many years: Kazutomo Imahori, who unfortunately passed away in May this year, and Yasuhiro Anraku. I'd like to express my gratitude to my late parents, who took great care of me during the very difficult years following the end of the Second World War. I'd like to finally thank my family, and especially my wife Mariko, who supported me at every stage of a long and devoted career.

I'd like to start by thanking you all for your attendance tonight. We are extremely happy that Professor Ohsumi has received this outstanding award and it is a great honor for our university. I am in awe of the devotion of Professor Ohsumi to basic research, his uniqueness as a researcher and his tenacious approach to science and I believe that these exemplary qualities are what has led him to stand here before you today as a truly great scientist. We are extremely pleased at Professor Ohsumi's commitment to basic science and the development of society through important research and am honored to be associated with him. Professor Ohsumi, on behalf of the Institute I offer you our most sincere congratulations for this remarkable achievement.

Ohsumi and his wife, Mariko, at the second press conference at Suzukakedai