STOCKHOLM:The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was announced this morning.The prize is shared by three physician/scientists for their “discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.”Two Americans and a British scientist won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for discovering how the body’s cells sense and react to oxygen levels, work that has paved the way for new strategies to fight anemia, cancer and other diseases, the Nobel Committee said.The Nobel Committee said scientists are focused on developing drugs that can treat diseases by either activating or blocking the body’s oxygen-sensing machinery.Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Committee and the Nobel Assembly, told a press conference that he was able to reach all three laureates, and they were “really happy, almost speechless and happy to share the prize.’’The 2019 prize is 9 million Swedish krona (about 1 million U.S. dollars), which will be equally shared among the three laureates.
- William G. Kaelin Jr, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA. Born in 1957 in New York; MD 1982 Duke University.
- Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom, Francis Crick Institute, London, United Kingdom. Born in 1954 in Lancashire, UK; MD 1978 University of Cambridge.
- Gregg L. Semenza, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD, USA. Born in 1956 in Flushing, Queens; MD/Ph.D. 1984 University of Pennsylvania.