The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine – Press Release

Press Release

2013-10-07

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

jointly to

James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Sdhof

for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells

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 signaling molecules 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 Sdhof revealed how signals instruct vesicles to release their cargo with precision.

Through their discoveries, Rothman, Schekman and Sdhof 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.

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The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine - Press Release