AP Karolinska Institute's Chairman of the
Nobel committee for physiology or medicine Juleen Zierath talks, as images of
the winners of the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine — James Rothman and Randy Schekman,
of the US, and German-born researcher Thomas Suedhof — are projected on a
screen, in Stockholm, Sweden, Monday.
Americans James Rothman and Randy Schekman and
German-born researcher Thomas Suedhof won the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine on
Monday for discoveries on how hormones, enzymes and other key substances are
transported within cells.
The Nobel committee said their research on
“vesicle traffic” the transport system of our cells helped scientists
understand how “cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time” inside
cells.
Disturbances to the system can contribute to
diabetes and neurological and immunological disorders, the committee said.
Dr. Rothman, 62, is a professor at Yale
University while Dr. Schekman, 64, is at the University of California,
Berkeley. Dr. Suedhof, 57, joined Stanford University in 2008.
“My first reaction was, “Oh, my God!” said Dr.
Schekman in a statement released by Berkeley. “That was also my second
reaction.”
The university said Dr. Schekman’s research
led to the success of the biotechnology industry. Dr. Schekman studied normal
and defective yeast to identify the process of vesicle transport, the
university said.
The Nobel committee said Dr. Schekman discovered
a set of genes that were required for vesicle transport, while Dr. Rothman
revealed how proteins dock with their target membranes like two sides of a
zipper. Dr. Suedhof found out how vesicles release their cargo with precision.
“These discoveries have had a major impact on
our understanding of how cargo is delivered with timing and precision within
and outside the cell,” the committee said.
Dr. Rothman and Dr. Schekman won the Albert
Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for their research in 2002: an award often
seen as a precursor of a Nobel Prize.
The medicine prize kicked off this year’s
Nobel announcements. The awards in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and
economics will be announced by other prize juries this week and next. Each
prize is worth 8 million Swedish kronor ($1.2 million).
Established by Swedish industrialist Alfred
Nobel, the Nobel Prizes have been handed out by award committees in Stockholm
and Oslo since 1901. The winners always receive their awards on Dec. 10, the
anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896.
Last year’s medicine award went to Britain’s
John Gurdon and Japan’s Shinya Yamanaka for their contributions to stem cell
science.
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