DHAKA: The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to three scientists — William G. Kaelin Jr., Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza — for their work on how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability. 

The Nobel Assembly announced the prize at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Monday.

Why did they win?

The work of the three men “identified the molecular machinery that regulates the activity of genes in response to varying levels of oxygen,” according to the Nobel Assembly, which described it as a major addition to the scientific understanding of the importance of oxygen to animals.

While the role of oxygen in the process of converting food into useful energy has long been understood, the assembly said, the way that cells adapt to changing oxygen levels remained unknown.

The men discovered how cells can sense and adapt to the changes in oxygen availability and  identified the components that regulate how genes respond to oxygen levels. This work paved the way for promising new strategies to fight anemia, cancer and many other diseases.

Who are the winners?

Professor Kaelin established his own research lab at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and became a full professor at Harvard Medical School in 2002, the committee said, and he has been an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, based in Maryland, since 1998.

Professor Ratcliffe is the director of clinical research at the Francis Crick Institute in London, the director of the Target Discovery Institute in Oxford, and a member of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research.

Professor Semenza became a full professor at Johns Hopkins University in 1999, and he has been the director of the Vascular Research Program at the Johns Hopkins Institute for Cell Engineering since 2003.

Who won the 2018 Nobel for medicine?

The prize last year went to James P. Allison of the United States and Tasuku Honjo of Japan for their work on immunotherapy, or unleashing the body’s immune system to attack cancer. This breakthrough has resulted in an entirely new class of drugs and brought lasting remissions to many patients who had run out of options.

When will the other Nobel Prizes be announced?

The Nobel Prize in Physics will be announced on Tuesday in Sweden. 

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry will be announced on Wednesday in Sweden. 

The 2018 and 2019 Nobel Prizes in Literature will be announced on Thursday in Sweden. 

The prize last year was postponed after the husband of an academy member was accused, and ultimately convicted, of rape — a crisis that led to the departure of several board members and required the intervention of the king of Sweden. 

The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday in Norway. 

The Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Science will be announced Monday next week in Sweden. 

Source: The New York Times
BDST: 1612 HRS, OCT 7, 2019
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