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Telephone Interview with Yoshinori Ohsumi

¡¡¡¡Telephone interview with Yoshinori Ohsumi following the announcement of the 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 3 October 2016. The interviewer is Adam Smith, Chief Scientific Officer of Nobel Media.

¡¡¡¡Yoshinori Ohsumi (YO): Moshi, Moshi, Yoshinori speaking.

¡¡¡¡Adam Smith (AS): Hello, Professor Ohsumi. My name is Adam Smith. I¡¯m calling from the official website for the Nobel Prize.

¡¡¡¡YO: Ah ha, yeah.

¡¡¡¡AS:First of all, our congratulations on the award of the Nobel Prize.

¡¡¡¡YO:Thank you so much. Yeah, I was surprised.

¡¡¡¡AS: [Laughs] How did you hear the news?

¡¡¡¡YO:I had a call from Thomas Perlmann.

¡¡¡¡AS:Yes, Secretary of the Nobel Committee, yes indeed.

¡¡¡¡YO:Yeah, Nobel Assembly.

¡¡¡¡AS:Nobel Assembly, yes. And where were you when you received the news?

¡¡¡¡YO: I was in my lab.

¡¡¡¡AS:And your first reaction?

¡¡¡¡YO:I heard that, single, only me! It was also a surprise for me.

¡¡¡¡AS: It¡¯s true, because it¡¯s rare that they give the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to just a single Laureate. What do you think this says about the role of the single researcher these days?

¡¡¡¡YO: That¡¯s my real surprise because so many people are now working in the autophagy field.

¡¡¡¡AS:Autophagy is a huge area. But it¡¯s not¡­it¡¯s not something¡­

¡¡¡¡YO: Yeah, recently.

¡¡¡¡AS: Recently, exactly.

¡¡¡¡YO: Just recently, I think. Yeah.

¡¡¡¡AS:Very largely because of your work.

¡¡¡¡YO: Yeah, it¡¯s so, developed fast, yeah. When I started my work, probably every year 20 or less papers appeared on autophagy. Now, more than 5,000 or something like that. It¡¯s a huge change within probably these 15 years or so.

¡¡¡¡AS: Yeah, a real explosion.

¡¡¡¡YO: I actually started more than 27 years ago.

¡¡¡¡AS: It was a good choice of field.

¡¡¡¡YO:Yeah, yeah, it was lucky. Yeah, yeast was a very good system and autophagy was a very good topic to work. Still we have so many questions. Yeah, even now, we have more questions than when I started.

¡¡¡¡AS:Once again, it underlines the power of yeast as an experimental model.

¡¡¡¡YO:Yeah.

¡¡¡¡AS: You can do so much with yeast. And does it surprise you how similar yeast is to ourselves?

¡¡¡¡YO:I believe there are fundamental functions of the cells should be conserved from yeast to mammals. So that¡¯s my belief. But, of course, vacuole is different from lysosome, but I thought that most fundamental mechanisms must be conserved. That was my assumption when I started my work.

¡¡¡¡AS:You sound as if you¡¯re still in a slight state of shock.

¡¡¡¡YO:Yeah¡­mmm.

¡¡¡¡AS: And will you be coming to Stockholm in December to receive your award?

¡¡¡¡YO: Yeah, yeah.

¡¡¡¡AS: Wonderful. Well, we very much look forward to meeting you then and to talking further.

¡¡¡¡YO:OK. Yeah.

¡¡¡¡AS: Thank you very much indeed for speaking to us now.

¡¡¡¡YO: Thanks so much.

¡¡¡¡AS: Congratulations again and we wish you a wonderful day.