Professors receive Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic

The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded jointly to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof "for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells".

They 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 chemical signals called neurotransmitters are sent from one nerve cell to another. These molecules are transported around the cell in small packages called vesicles.

James E. Rothman (born 1947) is the Fergus F. Wallace Professor of Biomedical Sciences at Yale University and Chairman of the Department of Cell Biology at Yale University Medical School. He was the co-awardee of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology of Medicine. He has also received many other honors, including the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research both in 2002 and the King Faisal Award. Rothman received his B.A. at Yale University and his Ph.D. at Harvard.

Thomas C. Südhof (born December 22, 1955 in Göttingen, Germany) is a biochemist well known for his study of synaptic transmission. Since 1986, Dr. Südhof's research has elucidated many major proteins mediating presynaptic functions. In fact, Sudhof's work has laid the foundation for our current scientific understanding of vesicle-mediated neurotransmitter release, and his continuing work focuses on the specificity of synaptogenesis and synaptic maintenance. He was the co-awardee of the 2013 Nobel Prize for Physiology of Medicine.

Randy Schekman, professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley, has won the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on how yeast secrete proteins. This reearch led directly to the success of the biotechnology industry, in which scientists had to coax yeast to secrete useful proteins such as insulin or human growth factor. Schekman shared the prize with scientists from Stanford University and Yale University.

"My first reaction was, "O my god," said Schekman, who was awakened with the good news at 1:30 a.m. "That was also my second reaction."

Source: Columbia University