Yoshinori Ohsumi

Yoshinori Ohsumi Japanese cell biologist who discovered the cellular "self-cleaning" mechanism called autophagy — through which cells recycle their own components to survive stress and remove damaged parts. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2016. His findings have transformed understanding of aging, cancer, Parkinson's disease, and diabetes, and spurred an explosion of research into autophagy-based therapies.