(Inside Science) — The 2019 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine has been awarded to three scientists “for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.”
The 9 million Swedish krona (more than $900,000) prize is shared equally between William Kaelin from the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, Peter Ratcliffe from the Francis Crick Institute in London, and Gregg Semenza from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Oxygen is used by almost all animal cells to convert food into useful energy, and the ability of cells to adapt and adjust gene expression in response to changes in levels of oxygen is one of most important adaptive systems for animal life, explained Randall Johnson, a member of the Nobel Prize Committee.
“Just as a candle needs the right amount of oxygen to burn cleanly, cells need to adjust their metabolic rates based on how much oxygen they have available,” ...
