Americans win Nobel for work on protein receptors
Source: Agencies |
October 11, 2012, Thursday
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TWO American researchers won the Nobel Prize in chemistry yesterday for studies of protein receptors that let body cells sense and respond to outside signals like danger or the flavor of food. Such studies are key for developing better drugs.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka had made groundbreaking discoveries, mainly in the 1980s, on an important family of receptors, known as G-protein-coupled receptors.
About half of all medications act on these receptors, including beta blockers and antihistamines, so learning about them will help scientists come up with better drugs.
The human body has about 1,000 kinds of such receptors, structures on the surface of cells, which let the body respond chemical signals, like adrenaline. Some are in the nose and eyes, and let us sense smells and light.
"They work as a gateway to the cell," Lefkowitz said in Stockholm. "As a result they are crucial ... to regulate almost every known physiological process with humans."
Lefkowitz, 69, is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.
Kobilka, 57, worked for Lefkowitz at Duke before transferring to Stanford University School of Medicine in California, where he is now a professor.
Lefkowitz said he was asleep when the Nobel committee called, but he didn't hear it because he was wearing ear plugs. So his wife picked up the phone.
"She said, 'There's a call here for you from Stockholm,'" Lefkowitz said. "I knew they ain't calling to find out what the weather is like in Durham today."
He said he didn't have an "inkling" that he was being considered for the Nobel Prize.
"Initially, I expected I'd have this huge burst of excitement. But I didn't. I was comfortably numb," Lefkowitz said.
Kobilka said he would put his half of the 8 million kronor (US$1.2 million) award toward retirement or "pass it on to my kids."
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka had made groundbreaking discoveries, mainly in the 1980s, on an important family of receptors, known as G-protein-coupled receptors.
About half of all medications act on these receptors, including beta blockers and antihistamines, so learning about them will help scientists come up with better drugs.
The human body has about 1,000 kinds of such receptors, structures on the surface of cells, which let the body respond chemical signals, like adrenaline. Some are in the nose and eyes, and let us sense smells and light.
"They work as a gateway to the cell," Lefkowitz said in Stockholm. "As a result they are crucial ... to regulate almost every known physiological process with humans."
Lefkowitz, 69, is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.
Kobilka, 57, worked for Lefkowitz at Duke before transferring to Stanford University School of Medicine in California, where he is now a professor.
Lefkowitz said he was asleep when the Nobel committee called, but he didn't hear it because he was wearing ear plugs. So his wife picked up the phone.
"She said, 'There's a call here for you from Stockholm,'" Lefkowitz said. "I knew they ain't calling to find out what the weather is like in Durham today."
He said he didn't have an "inkling" that he was being considered for the Nobel Prize.
"Initially, I expected I'd have this huge burst of excitement. But I didn't. I was comfortably numb," Lefkowitz said.
Kobilka said he would put his half of the 8 million kronor (US$1.2 million) award toward retirement or "pass it on to my kids."
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