2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Winners

2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Winners

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

jointly to

James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman

and Thomas C. Südhof

for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic,

a major transport system in our cells.

--> The discovery of a complex transport system within the human body that makes cells deliver life-saving proteins and molecules at the right place and in the right time - vital for our survival, has been awarded the 2013 Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology.

--> Americans James Rothman (Yale), and Randy Schekman ( University of California) and German-born Thomas Sudhof ( Stanford University) have been awarded the world's top medicine prize for discovering the molecular principles that govern how this cargo is delivered.

Summary

The 2013 Nobel Prize honours three scientists who have solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system. Each cell is a factory that produces and exports molecules. For instance, insulin is manufactured and released into the blood and chemical signals called neurotransmitters are sent from one nerve cell to another. These molecules are transported around the cell in small packages called vesicles. The three Nobel Laureates have discovered the molecular principles that govern how this cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time in the cell.

Randy Schekman discovered a set of genes that were required for vesicle traffic. James Rothman  unravelled protein machinery that allows vesicles to fuse with their targets to permit transfer of cargo. Thomas Südhof revealed how signals instruct vesicles to release their cargo with precision.

Through their discoveries, Rothman, Schekman and Südhof have revealed the exquisitely precise control system for the transport and delivery of cellular cargo. Disturbances in this system have deleterious effects and contribute to conditions such as neurological diseases, diabetes, and immunological disorders.