Nobel medical prize goes to 2 Americans, 1 German

Two Americans and a German shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine this year.

Americans James E. Rothman and Randy W. Schekman, and German Thomas C. Sudhof were awarded the prize Monday for discoveries of how the body's cells decide when and where to deliver the molecules they produce.

The Nobel Assembly said the three "have solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system."

Their work focuses on tiny bubbles inside cells called vesicles, which move hormones and other molecules within cells and sometimes outside them, such as when insulin is released into the bloodstream.

Winners of the 2013 Medicine Nobel Prize

Disruptions of this delivery system contribute to diabetes, neurological diseases and immunological disorders.

Rothman, a professor at Yale University, detailed how protein machinery allows vesicles in cells to fuse with their targets to permit the transfer of molecular cargo.

U.S. economist Lloyd Shapley smiles outside his home in Los Angeles after being notified that he won the 2012 Nobel Memorial Prize for Economics on Monday, October 15. He and Alvin Roth share the award for their work in market design and matching theory.

Alvin Roth receives congratulatory phone calls at his home in Menlo Park, California, on Monday, October 15, after winning the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics, which he shared with Lloyd Shapley. Roth was "surprised" and "delighted" when he got the midnight call at his California home telling him he had won.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee in Oslo awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Friday to the European Union for peaceful reconciliation after World War II between former foes Germany and France, and for spreading democracy and human rights through Europe.

Chinese writer Mo Yan won the 2012 Nobel Prize for literature on Thursday, October 11, for works which combine "hallucinatory realism" with folk tales, history and contemporary life grounded in his native land. Picture taken October 19, 2005.

Robert Lefkowitz, center, enters a party held for him at Duke University after winning the Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday. Lefkowitz shares the prize with his former student, Brian Kobilka.

Dr. Brian Kobilka, a professor of molecular and cellular physiology, stands in his laboratory at Stanford University. He shares the Nobel Prize in chemistry with Robert Lefkowitz of Duke University.

Serge Haroche, a French physicist and professor at the College de France, shares the Nobel Prize in physics with David Wineland.

David Wineland, winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in physics, gives a tour Tuesday of the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Boulder, Colorado, where he works in the physics department.

Kyoto University professor Shinya Yamanaka of Japan won the Nobel Prize in medicine for groundbreaking work on stem cells. He shares the prize with Sir John B. Gurdon of Britain.

Sir John Gurdon speaks Monday at a press conference after being awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine.

Economics, Lloyd Shapley

Economics, Alvin Roth

Peace, European Union

Literature, Mo Yan

Chemistry, Robert Lefkowitz

Chemistry, Brian Kobilka

Physics, Serge Haroche

Physics, David Wineland

Medicine, Shinya Yamanaka

Biology, John Gurdon

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Schekman, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, was honored for discovering a set of genes required for the "vesicle traffic."

Sudhof, a professor at Stanford University, showed how vesicles are instructed precisely when to release molecules.

Schekman and Sudhof also are investigators at Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Monday's ceremony at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, will be followed by the announcement of the physics prize Tuesday, the chemistry prize Wednesday and the economics prize on October 14.

The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in Oslo, Norway, on Friday. The prize for literature will be awarded on a date to be announced later. Each prize comes with 8 million Swedish kronor ($1.2 million).

Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel created the prizes in 1895 to honor work in physics, chemistry, literature and peace. The first economics prize was awarded in 1969.

In 2012, the medical Nobel Prize was awarded to Sir John B. Gurdon of England and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan for work on reprogramming cells. Their work paved the way for treatment breakthroughs.