2 Americans, German win Nobel medicine prize

Americans James Rothman and Randy Schekman and German-born researcher Thomas Suedhof won the 2013 Nobel Prize in medicine on 7.10.2013 for discoveries on how hormones, enzymes and other key substances are transported within cells.

The three of them discovered the complex transport system in the human body which makes the delivery of the life-saving proteins and molecules at right place and right time. James Rothman, Randy Schekman and Thomas Suedhof work at the Yale University, University of California and Stanford University respectively. 

It is important to note that disturbances in complex transport system of the human body can have poisonous effects and can also contribute towards the conditions like immunological disorders, neurological diseases and diabetes. The Nobel Committee announced that the three of them were honoured for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells. The value of each prize is 1.2 million US Dollar.

Individual Contribution

• In their discovery, Schekman discovered a set of genes which are needed for vesicle traffic.
• Rothman discovered the protein machinery which enables the vesicles to fuse with their targets in order to allow the transfer of cargo.
• Sudhof, in the meanwhile, revealed how the signals instruct the vesicles to release cargo with accuracy.