Two Americans and a British received the Nobel Prize in medicine: what is their merit

The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded for research into hormones that cells produce when there is a lack of oxygen. Three people received it at once - scientists from the USA and Great Britain.

Photo: video frame YouTube / Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize in medicine in 2019 was received by British scientist from Oxford, Sir Peter Ratcliffe, and the Americans, professor of medicine at Harvard, William Kelin, Jr. and oncologist at the Johns Hopkins University of Medicine Gregg Semenets. The prize is awarded for studies of cells and how they adapt to a lack of oxygen, writes Present Tense.

Semenza and Ratcliffe in the 2016 year already became the laureates of the Lasker Prize, one of the most prestigious awards for American doctors and biochemists, for the same research. Their work was devoted to oxygen starvation. Scientists have discovered that cells under these conditions produce hormones, which in turn cause the production of red blood cells. Scientists have also discovered the HIF-1 protein, which is activated only with hypoxia.

William Kelin, Jr., an oncologist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Research Institute at Harvard School of Medicine, studied the Hippel-Lindau disease, a rare genetic disease that is also called cerebroretinal angiomatosis, around the same time. With this disease, tumors form in various organs, and most often they are found in the cerebellum and other parts of the brain, on the retina, in the kidneys and adrenal glands. According to him, a gene that inhibits the growth of tumor cells in Hippel-Lindau disease is also associated with the disappearance of the HIF-1 protein with an excess of oxygen.

On the subject: American doctor received the Nobel Prize for cancer treatment

Experts believe that the discoveries of Kelin, Semenets and Ratcliffe can help find a cure for a number of cardiovascular diseases, some types of cancer and anemia (anemia). Already today, several companies are trying to use the HIF-1 hormone to create red blood cells in the laboratory.

Interestingly, Semenets, Kelin and Ratcliffe were not named in the list of the most likely Nobel laureates in medicine in the 2019 year. The American company Clarivate Analytics, which has been publishing lists of scientists cited in prestigious scientific journals since 2002, predicted this year that the prize could be given for optogenetics research, for a cure for hepatitis C, arthritis or lupus.

This year, among the candidates for the award there were many bright nominees with important discoveries. These are the topics and names that were named as candidates for the Nobel Prize in medicine in 2019.

Optogenetics

Optogenetics is the technique of using light to stimulate or suppress the activity of neurons, first described in the 2005 year. This revolutionary trend in neurology has improved understanding of the mechanisms of Parkinson's disease, work of vision, addictions and mood disorders. Ernst Bamberg (Germany), Karl Deyserrot (USA), Hero Miesenbeck (Austria-Great Britain), Edward Boyden (USA) and Peter Hegemann (Germany) were named as potential winners.

T-cell tolerance in the thymus

According to experts, John Kappler (USA) and Philippa Marrack (USA) could count on a reward for their research in the field of T-cell tolerance in the thymus. These works made it possible to understand the mechanisms of a number of autoimmune diseases, including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Victory over hepatitis C

The authors of Inside Science believed that a group of scientists who won hepatitis C could count on the Nobel Prize: Charles Rice (USA) and Ralph Bartenschlager (Germany). They managed to grow the virus in the laboratory, which allowed us to develop a new group of effective drugs.

Фото: Depositphotos

Genetics and breast cancer: BRCA1 and BRCA2

Also, a prize could be given for research in the field of breast cancer. In 1990, Marie-Claire King (USA) identified a region of the genome that could be responsible for the high risk of breast and ovarian cancer in different families, and isolated the BRCA1 gene. Six years later, this gene was sequenced by the team of Mark Skolnik (USA), and a little later they also found BRCA2. These genes usually work just to suppress cancer, but in women with a mutation in BRCA1, the risk of breast cancer by 70 years exceeds 60%.

These achievements, Inside Science notes, have enabled thousands of people to take preventative surgery to lower their risk of developing the disease. One of the most notorious cases is an operation to remove the breast and ovaries from Angelina Jolie.

On the subject: Save thousands of lives: a young immigrant from Ukraine creates a unique DNA robot in the USA

Wnt Signaling Paths

Hans Clevers (Netherlands) was also named among the candidates for the Nobel Prize for the study of Wnt intracellular signaling pathways, which are of fundamental importance in oncology.

Last year, the Nobel Prize was awarded to immunologists James Ellison and Tasuku Honjo for the creation of a new method of cancer immunotherapy, the so-called “checkpoint inhibitor” drugs. Every year there are more and more of them, and the effectiveness of such therapy is growing.

The drugs developed by Allison and Honjo can even cure patients with advanced cancer who were previously considered incurable. The way the drugs work is to “trick” cancer cells, preventing them from blocking the body’s immune response.

Drugs developed on the basis of their proposed methods have already been successfully used in the treatment of cancer patients. More drugs are undergoing clinical trials and will be available in the coming years.

Фото: Depositphotos

History of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded the 110 time, recalls Air force. Prize winners in medicine and physiology are selected by the Nobel Committee at the Caroline Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.

Since the 1901 of the year, 109 Nobel Prizes in Medicine and Physiology have been awarded to 216 scientists: 204 men and 12 women. None of them received the Nobel Prize twice.

Since the 1901 of the year when the prize was awarded for the first time, the winners in this nomination have not been announced only nine times: from 1915 to 1918 (World War I), in 1921, 1925, and also from 1940 to 1942 (World War II).

The youngest recipient of the prize was 32 years old - Canadian Frederick Banting received it in 1923 for the discovery of insulin, a hormone that regulates blood sugar levels. The oldest laureate was American Peyton Rose in 1966 for the discovery of viruses that provoke the development of tumors. At the time of the award he was 87 years old.

Nobel week

In 2019, the Nobel Week runs from 7 to 14 on October. It opens with the announcement of laureates in medicine and physiology (October 7) and continues with prizes in physics (October 8), chemistry (October 9), literature (October 10 immediately after the 2018 and 2019 years), as well as a peace prize (11 October) and the Prize in Economics (October 14).

The premium in 2019 is 9 million SEK (about $ 915 thousand). Prizes are traditionally awarded on December 10, on the day of the death of their founder, the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.

Read also on ForumDaily:

Trump complained that he was not given the Nobel Prize

The dirtiest money and magnetized cockroaches: who and for what received the Shnobel Prize-2019

Save thousands of lives: a young immigrant from Ukraine creates a unique DNA robot in the USA

"Technology must be out of politics": Russian schoolchild received a small Nobel Prize in the United States

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.