The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2016

Yoshinori Ohsumi

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2016 was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi "for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy".

Yoshinori Ohsumi, a Japanese cell biologist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for his discoveries on how cells recycle their content, a process known as autophagy, a Greek term for “self-eating.”

It is a crucial process. During starvation, cells break down proteins and nonessential components and reuse them for energy. Cells also use autophagy to destroy invading viruses and bacteria, sending them off for recycling. And cells use autophagy to get rid of damaged structures. The process is thought to go awry in cancer, infectious diseases, immunological diseases and neurodegenerative disorders. Disruptions in autophagy are also thought to play a role in aging.

But little was known about how autophagy happens, what genes were involved, or its role in disease and normal development until Dr. Ohsumi began studying the process in baker’s yeast.

Why Did He Win?

The process he studies is critical for cells to survive and to stay healthy. The autophagy genes and the metabolic pathways he discovered in yeast are used by higher organisms, including humans. And mutations in those genes can cause disease. His work led to a new field and inspired hundreds of researchers around the world to study the process and opened a new area of inquiry.

“Without him, the whole field doesn’t exist,” said Seungmin Hwang, an assistant professor in the department of pathology at the University of Chicago. “He set up the field.”

Who Is He?

Dr. Ohsumi, who was born in 1945 in Fukuoka, Japan, and received a Ph.D. from the University of Tokyo in 1974, floundered at first, trying to find his way. He started out in chemistry but decided it was too established a field with few opportunities.


So he switched to molecular biology. But his Ph.D. thesis was unimpressive, and he could not find a job. His adviser suggested a postdoctoral position at Rockefeller University in New York, where he was to study in vitro fertilization in mice.

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016

David J. Thouless
University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

and the other half to

F. Duncan M. Haldane
Princeton University, NJ, USA

and

J. Michael Kosterlitz
Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

”for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter”

They revealed the secrets of exotic matter
This year’s Laureates opened the door on an unknown world where matter can assume strange states. They have used advanced mathematical methods to study unusual phases, or states, of matter, such as superconductors, superfluids or thin magnetic films. Thanks to their pioneering work, the hunt is now on for new and exotic phases of matter. Many people are hopeful of future applications in both materials science and electronics.

The three Laureates’ use of topological concepts in physics was decisive for their discoveries. Topology is a branch of mathematics that describes properties that only change step-wise. Using topology as a tool, they were able to astound the experts. In the early 1970s, Michael Kosterlitz and David Thouless overturned the then current theory that superconductivity or suprafluidity could not occur in thin layers. They demonstrated that superconductivity could occur at low temperatures and also explained the mechanism, phase transition, that makes superconductivity disappear at higher temperatures.

In the 1980s, Thouless was able to explain a previous experiment with very thin electrically conducting layers in which conductance was precisely measured as integer steps. He showed that these integers were topological in their nature. At around the same time, Duncan Haldane discovered how topological concepts can be used to understand the properties of chains of small magnets found in some materials.

We now know of many topological phases, not only in thin layers and threads, but also in ordinary three-dimensional materials. Over the last decade, this area has boosted frontline research in condensed matter physics, not least because of the hope that topological materials could be used in new generations of electronics and superconductors, or in future quantum computers. Current research is revealing the secrets of matter in the exotic worlds discovered by this year’s Nobel Laureates.

Japanese cell biologist Yoshinori Ohsumi won Nobel Prize in medicine

Yoshinori Ohsumi (71) of Japan has won the 2016 Nobel Prize for physiology or Medicine for his pioneering work on autophagy. With this he becomes the 23rd Japanese national to win a Nobel prize and overall the sixth Japanese medicine Nobel laureate. Mr. Ohsumi had received a PhD from the University of Tokyo in 1974. Currently, he is a professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (TIT). What is Autophagy? Autophagy is a process whereby cells “eat themselves”. It is a fundamental process in cell physiology dealing with how the body breaks down and recycles cellular components. It is essential for the orderly recycling of damaged cell parts and its better understanding has major implications for health and disease, including cancer. It was first observed by Belgian scientist Christian de Duve who had won Nobel Medicine Prize in 1974 for it. Christian de Duve had coined the term “autophagy”, which comes from the Greek meaning self-eating. Yoshinori Ohsumi’s Research in Autophagy Ohsumi’s discoveries in Autophagy have led to a new paradigm in the understanding of how the cell recycles its content. In his research, Mr. Ohsumi had used baker’s yeast to identify genes essential for autophagy. He explained the mechanisms for autophagy in yeast and showed that similar sophisticated machinery is used in human cells. Significance: Ohsumi’s research had located the genes that regulate this self-eating process and also related that errors in these genes can cause disease. His findings have opened new path to understand importance of autophagy in many physiological processes, such as how body adapts to starvation or responds to infection. It has helped to establish links to Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes and other disorders that appear in the elderly. About Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel award for medicine is given to persons whose discoveries have significantly enhanced the understanding of life or the practice of medicine. The winners are chosen by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute and are always announced before the Nobel Prize for other categories. The prestigious award carries prize money of 8 million Swedish kroner or 1.1 million dollars. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite in 1895.

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Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 02 October 2016

National ::

Defence Minister says Pakistan still unaware that surgery has been done

• Pakistan is like a patient who has been given anaesthesia and doesn’t know that surgery has already been done on him, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said.
• The Minister’s remarks are first comments from a member of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) following the “surgical strikes” on terrorist launch pads along the Line of Control.
• Mr. Parrikar’s comments came even as Army chief Gen. Dalbir Singh visited the Northern and Western Commands and reviewed the Army’s operational preparedness in these two crucial commands.
• Addressing a gathering in Peethsain in Pauri district of Uttarakhand, the Minister warned that India would not hesitate to carry out more such operations in the future if its interests were harmed.
• “If Pakistan continues with such conspiracies, we will give them a befitting reply again,” the Minister said.
• Army chief interacted with top commanders and got a first hand assessment of the security situation amid heightened tensions along the LoC and the international border.

CBDT received disclosures of more than 65000 crores under IDS

• Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced that the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) had received total disclosures of Rs. 65,250 crore under the Income Disclosure Scheme, 2016 in the form of cash and other assets.
• The Minister added that since some disclosures that were received manually were yet to be tabulated and verified, the figure could be revised upward.
• The four-month window under the scheme for declaring undisclosed income or black money that had escaped assessment closed.
• Mr. Jaitley refused to draw comparisons of the current Income Declaration Scheme (IDS), 2016 with the Voluntary Disclosure Scheme of 1997.
• Then government had mopped up Rs. 9,760 crore in taxes at an average of about Rs. 7 lakh per declarant.
• Unlike the IDS, Mr. Jaitley said, the earlier scheme had not penalised the declarents and allowed them to value the assets declared at the market prices of 1987 rather than current rates.

International ::

US warns Pakistan about Nuclear posturing

• The United States has conveyed to Pakistan that nuclear threats are not acceptable, a senior State Department official, who did not want to be named, said.
• The message was conveyed after Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif said twice in the span of a week that his country could use tactical nuclear weapons against India.
• The U.S is concerned about the safety of Pakistani nuclear weapons otherwise also, the official said “The safety of these weapons is always a concern for us. So we are always monitoring it, regardless of what they said on this particular occasion,”.
• Meanwhile, State Department spokesperson Mark Toner said the U.S Secretary of State John Kerry is talking to the Indian leadership to ensure that the situation does not escalate.
• “we’re very concerned about the situation there. We don’t want to see it escalate any further. And as part of that concern, the Secretary is certainly engaged and talking to Indian leadership – senior Indian leadership,” Mr. Toner said.
• Mr. Toner said: “I would just say nuclear-capable states have a very clear responsibility to exercise restraint regarding nuclear weapons and missile capabilities. And that’s my message publicly and that’s certainly our message directly to the Pakistani authorities.”

:: India and World ::

India would stresson trying to operationalise the Green Climate Fund

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in Kozhikode on September 25 that India would ratify the Paris climate deal.
• The ratification document will be submitted at the offices of the UN Secretary-General by Syed Akbaruddin, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, or his representative, said Environment Ministry officials.
• It is still unclear what led India to alter its position dramatically from mere weeks ago.
• At the G20 summit in China last month, NITI Aayog Vice-Chairman Arvind Panagariya said India “wasn’t ready” in terms of the domestic actions required to ratify, or at least commit to ratify, the Paris deal within 2016.
• After India’s bid to enter the NSG was rebuffed by China in Seoul in June, the External Affairs Ministry said, “An early positive decision by the NSG would have allowed us to move forward on the Paris agreement.”
• Mr. Dave said that at the climate talks in Morocco in November, India would stress most on trying to operationalise the $100 billion corpus — called the Green Climate Fund — committed by developed countries.
• Fund will aid policy, projects and technology transfer as a buffer against the impact of climate change. Only a fraction of it has been pledged so far.
• The funds will help nations work on fulfilling their Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDC) which aim to reduce carbon emissions through a host of solutions.
• Mr. Dave said that India has already completed 12 per cent of all pre-2020 Intended National Determined Contributions (INDC), or the road map by which it will make good on its commitments to reduce carbon emissions.
• As part of its INDC plans, India had promised to bring down its emissions intensity, or emissions per unit of the GDP, by at least 33 per cent by the year 2030 as compared to 2005 levels.

:: Business and Economy ::

The centre is reconsidering a plan to widen the social security net

• The centre is reconsidering a plan to widen the social security net for workers by bringing more factories under the provident fund coverage.
• The Cabinet Secretariat has pointed out a few contradictions in the Labour Ministry’s proposal to amend the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act of 1952.
• The Labour Ministry had proposed to bring down the threshold limit for coverage of firms under the Employees’ Provident Fund (EPF) to factories with at least 10 workers. At present, the EPF Act is applicable to factories with minimum 20 workers.
• The proposal to decrease the threshold limit was found to be contradictory with another proposal in the Act to give an option to workers to switch to the NPS, managed by the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority.
• In his Union Budget 2015-16 speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed allowing EPF subscribers to opt for NPS and to make EPF contributions optional for workers below a certain income threshold.
• In June this year, Centre proposed making EPF optional for textile workers earning less than Rs 15,000 a month as a part of a special package for the garments sector.
• The government’s proposal to bring factories with at least 10 workers under the EPF fold can bring 50 lakh additional workers under the social security coverage.
• At present, 8.7 crore workers are subscribing to the EPFO out of which around 3.77 crore workers have been making active contributions to their provident fund account till 2015-16, data showed.
• The proposal to cover factories with at least tenworkers under the Employee Provident Fund Act was one of the recommendations of the 44th Indian Labour Conference Session which was held in February 2012.

Current Affairs for IAS Exams – 01 October 2016

National ::

Supreme Court cancels Shahabuddin’s bail

• Finely balancing societal interest with concerns about individual liberty, the Supreme Court ordered former RJD MP Mohd Shahabud-din to be sent back to prison 20 days after he came out on bail.
• The Supreme Court however ordered the Bihar government and the trial court to complete the trial as early as possible. In a “judicious” decision taken after pouring through evidence, a Bench of Justice P.C. Ghose and Amitava Roy said Shahabuddin should be “forthwith” taken back into custody.
• The Supreme Court observed that the High Court erred in granting Shahabuddin bail as a “matter of course” without taking into consideration “the overall facts”.
• It noted that several cases against him are pending in various stages of trial and appeal in various courts of Bihar and in the Patna High Court.
• The Bench made it clear that it has taken serious notice of Shahabuddin's repeated contention that there was a “conscious delay” in the conduct of his trial by directing that “all steps as contemplated in law to dispose of the case, as early as possible”.
• The order quashing the High Court decision to free Shahabuddin came despite the Bench flaying the lacklustre performance of the Bihar government on the prosecution side.
• The Bench had castigated the State for its 17-month delay in conducting the trial and the almost zero interest it showed to pre-vent Shahabuddin's bail.

Bihar’s liquor law amendment’s are ultra virus says HC

• The Patna High Court set aside the amended Bihar Prohibition and Excise Bill, 2016, which had banned the sale and consumption of liquor in the State.
• A division bench of the court, comprising Chief Justice Iqbal Ahmed Ansari and Justice Navaniti Prasad Singh, quashed the April 5 notification of the government.
• It said, “Section 19(4) of the Bihar Excise Act 1915 as amended with effect from 01.04.2016, (passed by the legislature on 31.03.2016) is ultra vires the Constitution and unenforceable.”
• The Bench, in its 142-page order, went on to say, “The impugned notification, issued by the State under Section 19(4) of the said amended Act is also ultravires the Constitution, and, consequently unenforceable.”

:: International ::

US Presidential candidate Clinton concerned over Nuclear weapon in Pak

• U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has expressed concern over the possibility of Pakistan’s nuclear weapons falling into the hands of jihadists, which she said was “a threatening scenario,” according to a media report.
• “Pakistan is running full speed to develop tactical nukes in their continuing hostility with India,” the former Secretary of State told a close door fundraiser in Virginia in February, The New York Times reported.
• Such remarks from the former secretary of state gains significance in view of an interview of Pakistani Defence Minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif to the local TV channel in which he threatened to unleash nukes against India.

:: India and World ::

SAARC summit in Pakistan postponed after withdrawal from various countries

• Blaming India for derailing the SAARC Summit, Pakistan announced that the summit in Islamabad will now be held on an alternative date, even as Sri Lanka joined others in opposing the summit under the “prevailing environment”.
• Nepal subsequently issued an official statement seeking an indefinite postponement of the summit.
• Sri Lanka joined India, Afghanistan, Bhutan and Bangladesh in demanding the summit should not be held.
• Sri Lankan Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding, “Sri Lanka condemns terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, and stresses in this regard the need to deal with the issue of terrorism in a decisive manner”.
• Addressing the media in Delhi, Afghan envoy Shaida M. Abdali demanded that SAARC should focus on counter-terror initiatives.
• Meanwhile, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup tweeted, ‘We note Pakistan’s decision 2 postpone SAARC Summit. They’ve been compelled 2 recognise the regional sentiment against terrorism.’

:: Business and Economy ::

India considering about developing airport at Chabahar

• India may examine a proposal from Iran to develop the airport at its strategic Chabahar port as part of comprehensive infrastructure development that includes rail-road connectivity to the port.
• The Chabahar port in the Sistan-Balochistan province on the energy-rich nation’s southern coast lies outside the Persian Gulf and is easily accessed from India’s western coast bypassing Pakistan.
• Apart from discussions on expanding scope of cooperation to cover development of the entire Chabahar port, it was discussed that air transport could be of much significance.
• Chabahar has an operational airport and the Iranian minister enquired whether India would be willing to modernise it.
• Chabahar project will open a new gateway for development of India, Iran and Afghanistan by boosting connectivity and trade.
• A “milestone” pact on the strategic Chabahar port in southern Iran that will provide India access to Afghanistan and Europe by passing Pakistan was signed by India and Iran in May this year.