14 DAY TRIAL // The Nobel Assembly at Karolinks Institutet has just announced that this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is to be awarded to one German and two American researchers, i.e. Thomas C. Südhof, James E. Rothman and Randy W. Schekman.
The researchers were awarded this prize “for their discovery of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells,” the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet writes in the press release.
Otherwise put, the Nobel Laureates have figured out how cells know when to produce certain molecules, and how they know where to release them.
“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,” the Institutet details.
Randy Schekman was the one who discovered specific genes in whose absence vesicle traffic cannot take place.
James Rothman was the one who pinned down the mechanisms that enable vesicles to make contact with their targets in order to deliver their cargo, and Thomas Südhof identified the signals that make it possible for vesicles to let go of their cargo with impressive precision.
Failures in this cell transport system have previously been linked to several conditions.
As the Institutet explains, “The system is critical for a variety of physiological processes in which vesicle fusion must be controlled, ranging from signalling in the brain to release of hormones and immune cytokines.”
Furthermore, “Defective vesicle transport occurs in a variety of diseases including a number of neurological and immunological disorders, as well as in diabetes.”
Therefore, these findings are expected to yield significant benefits in the field of medicine.