Nobel medical prize goes to 2 Americans, 1 German




Two Americans and a German shared the
Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine this year.
Americans James E. Rothman and Randy W. Schekman,
and German Thomas C. Sudhof were awarded the prize
Monday for discoveries of how the body's cells decide
when and where to deliver the molecules they produce.
The Nobel Assembly said the three "have solved the
mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system."
Their work focuses on tiny bubbles inside cells called
vesicles, which move hormones and other molecules
within cells and sometimes outside them, such as when
insulin is released into the bloodstream.
Disruptions of this delivery system
contribute to diabetes, neurological
diseases and immunological disorders.
Rothman, a professor at Yale University,
detailed how protein machinery allows
vesicles in cells to fuse with their targets to
permit the transfer of molecular cargo.
Schekman, a professor at the University of
California, Berkeley, was honored for
discovering a set of genes required for the
"vesicle traffic."
Sudhof, a professor at Stanford University,
showed how vesicles are instructed
precisely when to release molecules.
Schekman and Sudhof also are
investigators at Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
Monday's ceremony at the Karolinska Institute in
Stockholm, Sweden, will be followed by the
announcement of the physics prize Tuesday, the
chemistry prize Wednesday and the economics prize on
October 14.
The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in Oslo, Norway,
on Friday. The prize for literature will be awarded on a
date to be announced later. Each prize comes with 8
million Swedish kronor ($1.2 million).
Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel created the prizes in
1895 to honor work in physics, chemistry, literature
and peace. The first economics prize was awarded in
1969.
In 2012, the medical Nobel Prize was awarded to Sir
John B. Gurdon of England and Shinya Yamanaka of
Japan for work on reprogramming cells. Their work
paved the way for treatment breakthroughs.

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