Stockholm: This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to three scientists hailing from the US and the Great Britain. William Kaelin, Sir Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza were given the high honor for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to changing oxygen availability.
While William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza are from the US, Sir Peter Ratcliffe hails from UK.
The press release of the Nobel Committee reads, “They established the basis for our understanding of how oxygen levels affect cellular metabolism and physiological function. Their discoveries have also paved the way for promising new strategies to fight anaemia, cancer and many other diseases.”
Though the significance of oxygen for the conversion of food into useful energy has been recognized for centuries, it was not clear how the cells adapt to changes in levels of oxygen. The contributions of these years awardees identifies the molecular machinery behind this.
The awardees will be given a gold medal, a diploma and 9 million Swedish kroner which amounts to GBP 740,000.
