The science behind the 2019 Nobel Prize for Medicine
Share to twitterOtto Warburg, the recipient of the 1931 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, revealed that oxygen is used by our cells to convert food into energy in an enzymatic process.Three researchers have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for discovering the complex processes behind how human cells respond to oxygen. William Kaelin Jr, Sir Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza’s pioneering work is now paving the way for innovative new drugs to defeat cancer and other diseases.
Semenza studied the gene for erythropoietin and found that only one protein-complex called hypoxia-inducible factor both controls how the EPO gene works and also responds to oxygen levels. This protein is present when oxygen levels are low but disappears when they are high.
Already, a number of drugs have been developed on the back of the understanding of this oxygen-sensing pathway. Roxadustat and daprodustat, for example, treat anaemia by increasing red blood cell production, and similar drugs are aiming to treat patients with heart disease and lung cancer that struggle with hypoxia . More experimental drugs are also blocking blood vessel formation, aiming to prevent tumor growth in some cancers.
Randall Johnson, prize committee member and professor of molecular physiology and pathology at Cambridge University, described the trio’s work as a “textbook discovery,” adding “this is something basic biology students will be learning about when they study, at aged 12 or 13. ... This is a basic aspect of how a cell works, and I think from that standpoint alone it’s a very exciting thing.”
The three 2019 laureates, who also won the esteemed Lasker prize in 2016, will now share the 9M Swedish kronor prize, and I get the impression that following a brief celebration, it will be straight back to work. On receiving the 5 a.m. call from Sweden, Ratcliffe told“I tried to make sure it wasn’t some friend down the road having a laugh at my expense.
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