One 2016 Nobel: Yeast-Based Autophagy Work; 3 MacArthurs: Microbiology

Abstract

The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, about $936,000 this year, recognizes Yoshinori Ohsumi of Japan for his efforts to understand autophagy, a fundamental process for degrading and recycling cellular components, research that he began by studying yeast. Separately, among the 2016 MacArthur Foundation Fellows, who receive $625,000 “genius awards,” are microbiologist Dianne Newman, who studies bacteria that played roles in shaping the Earth as well as in modern biomedical contexts; geobiologist Victoria Orphan, whose focus is on microbial communities in extreme environments; and physical biologist Manu Prakash, who invented several devices that can be used for diagnostic work in microbiology. Also noteworthy, the 2016 LaskerDeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award is shared by three scientists whose research on hepatitis C virus (HCV) led to development of drugs for treating HCV infections.