Nobel in medicine or physiology: 'cell traffic' and disease triggers

Three U.S.-based scientists won the 2013 Nobel medicine prize on Monday for their work on how hormones and enzymes are transported within and outside cells, giving insight into diseases such as diabetes and Alzheimer's.

Alfred Nobel - the Man behind the Nobel Prize

• Spoke 5 languages fluently at the age of 17.
• Worked as chemist, engineer, industrialist.
• Invented dynamite.
• Left 31 million SEK (today about 265 million dollar) to fund the Nobel Prizes.

Alfred Nobel's laboratory in Bofors, Sweden.

Three scientists have won the Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology after discovering how cells precisely transport material. Disruptions of this delivery system contribute to diabetes, neurological diseases and immunological disorders.

The Nobel Assembly said the three "have solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system."

Vesicle traffic' research wins Nobel Prize

Two Americans and a German-American won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discovering how key substances are transported within cells, a process involved in such important activities as brain cell communication and the release of insulin.

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.

Three researchers from U.S. schools have won the Nobel Prize in medicine. James Rothman and Randy Schekman share the award with Thomas Suedhof.

They found the way "vesicles" act like a fleet of ships transporting their goods to the exact destination.

It is crucial for the way the brain communicates, the release of hormones and parts of the immune system.

The billions of cells which make up the body are not empty blobs, instead they are packed with precise machinery. In order for a cell to function properly it needs the right materials in the right place at the right time.

Vesicles are tiny bubbles of fat which act as the cell's internal shipping service. They can send material such as enzymes, neurotransmitters and hormones, around the cell. Or they can fuse with the outer surface of the cell and release their contents into the wider body.

The prize committee said the findings: "Had a major impact on our understanding of how cargo is delivered with timing and precision within and outside the cell.

"Without this wonderfully precise organisation, the cell would lapse into chaos."

A defective vesicle transport system is implicated in diabetes and brain disorders.

Did You Know? 204 persons have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine between 1901 and 2012. 38 Medicine Prizes have been given to one Laureate only. 10 women have been awarded the Medicine Prize so far. 32 years was the age of the youngest Medicine Laureate ever, Frederick G. Banting, who was awarded the 1923 Medicine Prize for the discovery of insulin. 87 years was the age of the oldest Medicine Laureate ever, Peyton Rous, when he was awarded the Medicine Prize in 1966. 57 is the average age of the Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine the year they were awarded the prize.