The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been given to two American professors and a German-born professor at Stanford who have “solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system.” The three scientists are being honored for their discoveries of “machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells” (hormones, enzymes, and other key materials transported with cells), the Nobel Assembly at Karolinkska Institutet announced in Stockholm, Sweden Monday .
The award was given to James E. Rothman, 62, professor of biomedical sciences at Yale University; Randy W. Schekman, 64, professor of cellular and developmental biology at the University of California-Berkeley; and German-born Thomas C. Sudhoff, 57, a professor in the School of Medicine at Stanford University.
The news wire service Associated Press says, “The discovery solves the mystery of how animal cells organize their internal transportation system to direct molecules to the correct place. This helps explain how certain illnesses, including diabetes, tetanus and many immune diseases, work.”
Nobel Prize 2013 Awardees. Photo: Courtesy of NobelPrizeMedicine.org
(Top photo) Photo & Images: Courtesy of NobelPrizeMedicine.org
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Scott is Director of Digital Content & Alumni Communications Liaison at UMHS and editor of the UMHS Endeavour blog. When he's not writing about UMHS students, faculty, events, public health, alumni and UMHS research, he writes and edits Broadway theater reviews for a website he publishes in New York City, StageZine.com.
