3 US scientists win Nobel for discovering cargo carriers in cells

Transcription

1 3 US scientists win Nobel for discovering cargo carriers in cells By Associated Press, adapted by Newsela staff Oct. 8, 2013 midnight Randy Schekman (right), a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, holds up his lifetime campus parking pass that he was given by Chancellor Nicholas Dirks (left) after winning the Nobel Prize in medicine. Schekman and two others won the prize for discovering how key substances are transported within cells. Photo: AP Photo/Eric Risberg newsela.com/articles/nobel-medicine/id/1382/ 1/5

2 STOCKHOLM Three scientists in the United States won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday. It is one of the highest honors in the world. The trio received the prize for discovering how important substances are moved within cells. Their work has helped other scientists better understand brain diseases and diabetes. James Rothman, 62, Randy Schekman, 64, and Dr. Thomas Sudhof, 57, shared the $1.2 million prize. They got the award for their research on how tiny bubbles called vesicles act as cargo carriers inside cells. Rothman works at Yale University and Schekman is at the University of California, Berkeley. Both are American-born. Sudhof is a Stanford University professor who was born in Germany. What they discovered is like a traffic control system. It makes sure that the cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time. It keeps activities inside cells operating in an orderly fashion, the Nobel committee said. If something goes wrong, there can be problems. A person could develop brain and nerve diseases, diabetes and trouble with his or her immune system. How Cells Transport Substances "Imagine hundreds of thousands of people who are traveling around hundreds of miles of streets; how are they going to find the right way? Where will the bus stop and open its doors so that people can get out?" Nobel committee secretary Goran Hansson said. "There are similar problems in the cell." The winners made their discoveries in the 1970s, '80s and '90s. Those discoveries have helped doctors diagnose a severe form of epilepsy and immune deficiency diseases in children, Hansson said. Epilepsy is a condition caused by unusual electrical activity in the brain. In the future, scientists hope the research could help them develop medicines. The medicines would help fight more common types of epilepsy, diabetes and other conditions, he added. newsela.com/articles/nobel-medicine/id/1382/ 2/5

3 Schekman said he got the call from the head of the prize committee at 1 a.m. at his home in California. He was asleep at the time. "I wasn't thinking too straight. I didn't have anything elegant to say," he said. "All I could say was 'Oh my God,' and that was that." In the 1970s, Schekman discovered a set of genes. The genes were required to move vesicles. Rothman showed in the 1980s and 1990s how vesicles delivered their cargo to the right places. Also in the '90s, Sudhof identified the machinery that controls when vesicles release chemical messengers from one brain cell that lets it communicate with another. 3 Decades Of Work And Discovery "This is not an overnight thing," Rothman said. Most of the work has taken many years to develop, he said. Rothman said he lost grant money for the work recognized by the Nobel committee. He said he will reapply. He hopes the Nobel prize will make a difference. Sudhof was born in Germany and moved to the U.S. in He also has U.S. citizenship. He said he received the call from the committee while driving in southern Spain. "To be honest, I thought at first it was a joke. I have a lot of friends who might play these kinds of tricks," he said. The medicine prize kicked off this year's Nobel announcements. There are also awards in physics, chemistry, literature, peace and economics. They will be announced this week and next. Each prize is worth 8 million Swedish kronor, or $1.2 million. Rothman and Schekman won the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in Getting the Lasker award is often seen as a sign of being a Nobel Prize contender. Sudhof won the Lasker award this year. "Driven So Much Other Research" newsela.com/articles/nobel-medicine/id/1382/ 3/5

4 "I might have been just as happy to have been a practicing primarycare doctor," Sudhof said after winning that prize. But he worked with patients with severe brain diseases when he was a medical student, he said. That made a lasting impression on him, he said. Jeremy Berg is the former leader of a government run medical research group. He said Monday's announcement was long overdue. It was widely expected because the research was "so fundamental, and has driven so much other research," he said. Berg said the work provided the framework that scientists use to study how brain cells communicate. It also showed how other cells release hormones, substances that cause cells to act. In both cases, vesicles play an important part. Vesicles delivered their cargo to the cell surface and released it to the outside, he said. Nearly all research on brain and nerve disease has been indirectly helped by their work, he said. The prizes were invented by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel. They have been handed out by award committees in Stockholm and Oslo since The winners always receive their awards on Dec. 10, the day Nobel died in newsela.com/articles/nobel-medicine/id/1382/ 4/5

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