The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (Swedish: Nobelpriset i fysiologi eller medicin) is awarded annually by the Swedish Karolinska Institute to scientists and doctors in the various fields of physiology or medicine. It is one of the five Nobel Prizes established by the 1895 will of Alfred Nobel (who died in 1896), awarded for outstanding contributions in chemistry, physics, literature, peace, and physiology or medicine.[1] As dictated by Nobel's will, the award is administered by the Nobel Foundation and awarded by a committee that consists of five members and an executive secretary elected by the Karolinska Institute.[2][3] While commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Medicine, Nobel specifically stated that the prize be awarded for "physiology or medicine" in his will. Because of this, the prize can be awarded in a broader range of fields.[3] The first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded in 1901 to Emil Adolf von Behring, of Germany. Each recipient receives a medal, a diploma and a monetary award that has varied throughout the years.[4] In 1901, von Behring received 150,782 SEK, which is equal to 7,731,004 SEK in December 2008. In 2008, the prize was awarded to Harald zur Hausen, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Luc Montagnier, who shared the prize amount of 10,000,000 SEK (slightly more than €1 million, or US$1.4 million).[5] The award is presented in Stockholm at an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.[6]
Laureates have won the Nobel Prize in a wide range of fields that relate to physiology or medicine. As of 2009, 8 Prizes have been awarded for contributions in the field of signal transduction by G proteins and second messengers, 13 have been awarded for contributions in the field of neurobiology and 13 have been awarded for contributions in Intermediary Metabolism.[3] Gerhard Domagk (1939), a German, was not allowed by his government to accept the prize. He later received a medal and diploma, but not the money.[7] Ten women have won the prize: Gerty Cori (1947), Rosalyn Yalow (1977), Barbara McClintock (1983), Rita Levi-Montalcini (1986), Gertrude B. Elion (1988), Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard (1995), Linda B. Buck (2004), Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (2008), Elizabeth H. Blackburn (2009) and Carol W. Greider (2009).[8] As of 2009, the prize has been awarded to 195 individuals. There have been nine years in which the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was not awarded (1915–1918, 1921, 1925, 1940–1942).
Contents |
Year | Laureate[A] | Country[B] | Rationale[C] | |
---|---|---|---|---|
1901 | Emil Adolf von Behring | Germany | "for his work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths"[9] | |
1902 | Ronald Ross | United Kingdom | "for his work on malaria, by which he has shown how it enters the organism and thereby has laid the foundation for successful research on this disease and methods of combating it"[10] | |
1903 | Niels Ryberg Finsen | Denmark | "[for] his contribution to the treatment of diseases, especially lupus vulgaris, with concentrated light radiation, whereby he has opened a new avenue for medical science"[11] | |
1904 | Ivan Petrovich Pavlov | Russia | "in recognition of his work on the physiology of digestion, through which knowledge on vital aspects of the subject has been transformed and enlarged"[12] | |
1905 | Robert Koch | Germany | "for his investigations and discoveries in relation to tuberculosis"[13] | |
1906 | Camillo Golgi | Italy | "in recognition of their work on the structure of the nervous system"[14] | |
Santiago Ramón y Cajal | Spain | |||
1907 | Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran | France | "in recognition of his work on the role played by protozoa in causing diseases"[15] | |
1908 | Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov | Russia | "in recognition of their work on immunity"[16] | |
Paul Ehrlich | Germany | |||
1909 | Emil Theodor Kocher | Switzerland | "for his work on the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid gland"[17] | |
1910 | Albrecht Kossel | Germany | "in recognition of the contributions to our knowledge of cell chemistry made through his work on proteins, including the nucleic substances"[18] | |
1911 | Allvar Gullstrand | Sweden | "for his work on the dioptrics of the eye"[19] | |
1912 | Alexis Carrel | France | "[for] his work on vascular suture and the transplantation of blood vessels and organs"[20] | |
1913 | Charles Richet | France | "[for] his work on anaphylaxis"[21] | |
1914 | Robert Bárány | Austria | "for his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular apparatus"[22] | |
1915 | Not awarded | |||
1916 | ||||
1917 | ||||
1918 | ||||
1919 | Jules Bordet | Belgium | "for his discoveries relating to immunity"[23] | |
1920 | Schack August Steenberg Krogh | Denmark | "for his discovery of the capillary motor regulating mechanism"[24] | |
1921 | Not awarded | |||
1922 | Archibald Vivian Hill | United Kingdom | "for his discovery relating to the production of heat in the muscle"[25] | |
Otto Fritz Meyerhof | Germany | "for his discovery of the fixed relationship between the consumption of oxygen and the metabolism of lactic acid in the muscle"[25] | ||
1923 | Frederick Grant Banting | Canada | "for the discovery of insulin"[26] | |
John James Richard Macleod | Canada | |||
1924 | Willem Einthoven | The Netherlands | "for the discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram"[27] | |
1925 | Not awarded | |||
1926 | Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger | Denmark | "for his discovery of the Spiroptera carcinoma"[28] | |
1927 | Julius Wagner-Jauregg | Austria | "for his discovery of the therapeutic value of malaria inoculation in the treatment of dementia paralytica"[29] | |
1928 | Charles Jules Henri Nicolle | France | "for his work on typhus"[30] | |
1929 | Christiaan Eijkman | The Netherlands | "for his discovery of the antineuritic vitamin"[31] | |
Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins | United Kingdom | "for his discovery of the growth-stimulating vitamins"[31] | ||
1930 | Karl Landsteiner | Austria | "for his discovery of human blood groups"[32] | |
1931 | Otto Heinrich Warburg | Germany | "for his discovery of the nature and mode of action of the respiratory enzyme"[33] | |
1932 | Sir Charles Scott Sherrington | United Kingdom | "for their discoveries regarding the functions of neurons"[34] | |
Edgar Douglas Adrian | United Kingdom | |||
1933 | Thomas Hunt Morgan | United States | "for his discoveries concerning the role played by the chromosome in heredity"[35] | |
1934 | George Hoyt Whipple | United States | "for their discoveries concerning liver therapy in cases of anaemia"[36] | |
George Richards Minot | United States | |||
William Parry Murphy | United States | |||
1935 | Hans Spemann | Germany | "for his discovery of the organizer effect in embryonic development"[37] | |
1936 | Sir Henry Hallett Dale | United Kingdom | "for their discoveries relating to chemical transmission of nerve impulses"[38] | |
Otto Loewi | Austria | |||
1937 | Albert Szent-Györgyi von Nagyrapolt | Hungary | "for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion processes, with special reference to vitamin C and the catalysis of fumaric acid"[39] | |
1938 | Corneille Jean François Heymans | Belgium | "for the discovery of the role played by the sinus and aortic mechanisms in the regulation of respiration"[40] | |
1939 | Gerhard Domagk | Germany | "for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil"[41] | |
1940 | Not awarded | |||
1941 | ||||
1942 | ||||
1943 | Carl Peter Henrik Dam | Denmark | "for his discovery of vitamin K"[42] | |
Edward Adelbert Doisy | United States | "for his discovery of the chemical nature of vitamin K"[42] | ||
1944 | Joseph Erlanger | United States | "for their discoveries relating to the highly differentiated functions of single nerve fibres"[43] | |
Herbert Spencer Gasser | United States | |||
1945 | Sir Alexander Fleming | United Kingdom | "for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases"[44] | |
Ernst Boris Chain | United Kingdom | |||
Howard Walter Florey | Australia | |||
1946 | Hermann Joseph Muller | United States | "for the discovery of the production of mutations by means of X-ray irradiation"[45] | |
1947 | Carl Ferdinand Cori | United States | "for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen"[46] | |
Gerty Theresa Cori, née Radnitz | United States | |||
Bernardo Alberto Houssay | Argentina | "for his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugar"[46] | ||
1948 | Paul Hermann Müller | Switzerland | "for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods"[47] | |
1949 | Walter Rudolf Hess | Switzerland | "for his discovery of the functional organization of the interbrain as a coordinator of the activities of the internal organs"[48] | |
Antonio Caetano De Abreu Freire Egas Moniz | Portugal | "for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy (lobotomy) in certain psychoses"[48] | ||
1950 | Philip Showalter Hench | United States | "for their discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects"[49] | |
Edward Calvin Kendall | United States | |||
Tadeusz Reichstein | Switzerland | |||
1951 | Max Theiler | Union of South Africa | "for his discoveries concerning yellow fever and how to combat it"[50] | |
1952 | Selman Abraham Waksman | United States | "for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis"[51] | |
1953 | Hans Adolf Krebs | United Kingdom | "for his discovery of the citric acid cycle"[52] | |
Fritz Albert Lipmann | United States | "for his discovery of co-enzyme A and its importance for intermediary metabolism"[52] | ||
1954 | John Franklin Enders | United States | "for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue"[53] | |
Frederick Chapman Robbins | United States | |||
Thomas Huckle Weller | United States | |||
1955 | Axel Hugo Theodor Theorell | Sweden | "for his discoveries concerning the nature and mode of action of oxidation enzymes"[54] | |
1956 | André Frédéric Cournand | United States | "for their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system"[55] | |
Werner Forssmann | Federal Republic of Germany | |||
Dickinson W. Richards | United States | |||
1957 | Daniel Bovet | Italy | "for his discoveries relating to synthetic compounds that inhibit the action of certain body substances, and especially their action on the vascular system and the skeletal muscles"[56] | |
1958 | George Wells Beadle | United States | "for their discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events"[57] | |
Edward Lawrie Tatum | United States | |||
Joshua Lederberg | United States | "for his discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria"[57] | ||
1959 | Arthur Kornberg | United States | "for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid"[58] | |
Severo Ochoa | Spain United States |
|||
1960 | Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet | Australia | "for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance"[59] | |
Peter Brian Medawar | United Kingdom | |||
1961 | Georg von Békésy | United States | "for his discoveries of the physical mechanism of stimulation within the cochlea"[60] | |
1962 | Francis Harry Compton Crick | United Kingdom | "for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material"[61] | |
James Dewey Watson | United States | |||
Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins | New Zealand United Kingdom |
|||
1963 | Sir John Carew Eccles | Australia | "for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane"[62] | |
Alan Lloyd Hodgkin | United Kingdom | |||
Andrew Fielding Huxley | United Kingdom | |||
1964 | Konrad Bloch | United States | "for their discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism"[63] | |
Feodor Lynen | Federal Republic of Germany | |||
1965 | François Jacob | France | "for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis"[64] | |
André Lwoff | France | |||
Jacques Monod | France | |||
1966 | Peyton Rous | United States | "for his discovery of tumour-inducing viruses"[65] | |
Charles Brenton Huggins | United States | "for his discoveries concerning hormonal treatment of prostatic cancer"[65] | ||
1967 | Ragnar Granit | Finland/Sweden | "for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye"[66] | |
Haldan Keffer Hartline | United States | |||
George Wald | United States | |||
1968 | Robert W. Holley | United States | "for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis"[67] | |
Har Gobind Khorana | India | |||
Marshall W. Nirenberg | United States | |||
1969 | Max Delbrück | United States | "for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses"[68] | |
Alfred D. Hershey | United States | |||
Salvador E. Luria | United States | |||
1970 | Julius Axelrod | United States | "for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmittors in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation"[69] | |
Ulf von Euler | Sweden | |||
Sir Bernard Katz | United Kingdom | |||
1971 | Earl W. Sutherland, Jr. | United States | "for his discoveries concerning the mechanisms of the action of hormones"[70] | |
1972 | Gerald M. Edelman | United States | "for their discoveries concerning the chemical structure of antibodies"[71] | |
Rodney R. Porter | United Kingdom | |||
1973 | Karl von Frisch | Federal Republic of Germany | "for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns"[72] | |
Konrad Lorenz | Austria | |||
Nikolaas Tinbergen | United Kingdom | |||
1974 | Albert Claude | Belgium | "for their discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell"[73] | |
Christian de Duve | Belgium | |||
George E. Palade | United States | |||
1975 | David Baltimore | United States | "for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell"[74] | |
Renato Dulbecco | United States | |||
Howard Martin Temin | United States | |||
1976 | Baruch S. Blumberg | United States | "for their discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases"[75] | |
D. Carleton Gajdusek | United States | |||
1977 | Roger Guillemin | United States | "for their discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain"[76] | |
Andrew V. Schally | United States | |||
Rosalyn Yalow | United States | "for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones"[76] | ||
1978 | Werner Arber | Switzerland | "for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics"[77] | |
Daniel Nathans | United States | |||
Hamilton O. Smith | United States | |||
1979 | Allan M. Cormack | United States | "for the development of computer assisted tomography"[78] | |
Godfrey N. Hounsfield | United Kingdom | |||
1980 | Baruj Benacerraf | United States | "for their discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions"[79] | |
Jean Dausset | France | |||
George D. Snell | United States | |||
1981 | Roger W. Sperry | United States | "for his discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres"[80] | |
David H. Hubel | United States | "for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system"[80] | ||
Torsten N. Wiesel | Sweden | |||
1982 | Sune K. Bergström | Sweden | "for their discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related biologically active substances"[81] | |
Bengt I. Samuelsson | Sweden | |||
John R. Vane | United Kingdom | |||
1983 | Barbara McClintock | United States | "for her discovery of mobile genetic elements"[82] | |
1984 | Niels K. Jerne | Denmark | "for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies"[83] | |
Georges J.F. Köhler | Federal Republic of Germany | |||
César Milstein | Argentina United Kingdom |
|||
1985 | Michael S. Brown | United States | "for their discoveries concerning the regulation of cholesterol metabolism"[84] | |
Joseph L. Goldstein | United States | |||
1986 | Stanley Cohen | United States | "for their discoveries of growth factors"[85] | |
Rita Levi-Montalcini | Italy United States |
|||
1987 | Susumu Tonegawa | Japan | "for his discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity"[86] | |
1988 | Sir James W. Black | United Kingdom | "for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment"[87] | |
Gertrude B. Elion | United States | |||
George H. Hitchings | United States | |||
1989 | J. Michael Bishop | United States | "for their discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes"[88] | |
Harold E. Varmus | United States | |||
1990 | Joseph E. Murray | United States | "for their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease"[89] | |
E. Donnall Thomas | United States | |||
1991 | Erwin Neher | Federal Republic of Germany | "for their discoveries concerning the function of single ion channels in cells"[90] | |
Bert Sakmann | Federal Republic of Germany | |||
1992 | Edmond H. Fischer | Switzerland United States |
"for their discoveries concerning reversible protein phosphorylation as a biological regulatory mechanism"[91] | |
Edwin G. Krebs | United States | |||
1993 | Richard J. Roberts | United Kingdom | "for their discoveries of split genes"[92] | |
Phillip A. Sharp | United States | |||
1994 | Alfred G. Gilman | United States | "for their discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells"[93] | |
Martin Rodbell | United States | |||
1995 | Edward B. Lewis | United States | "for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development"[94] | |
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard | Federal Republic of Germany | |||
Eric F. Wieschaus | United States | |||
1996 | Peter C. Doherty | Australia | "for their discoveries concerning the specificity of the cell mediated immune defence"[95] | |
Rolf M. Zinkernagel | Switzerland | |||
1997 | Stanley B. Prusiner | United States | "for his discovery of Prions - a new biological principle of infection"[96] | |
1998 | Robert F. Furchgott | United States | "for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system"[97] | |
Louis J. Ignarro | United States | |||
Ferid Murad | United States | |||
1999 | Günter Blobel | United States | "for the discovery that proteins have intrinsic signals that govern their transport and localization in the cell"[98] | |
2000 | Arvid Carlsson | Sweden | "for their discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system"[99] | |
Paul Greengard | United States | |||
Eric R. Kandel | United States | |||
2001 | Leland H. Hartwell | United States | "for their discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle"[100] | |
Tim Hunt | United Kingdom | |||
Sir Paul M. Nurse | United Kingdom | |||
2002 | Sydney Brenner | United Kingdom | "for their discoveries concerning 'genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death'"[101] | |
H. Robert Horvitz | United States | |||
John E. Sulston | United Kingdom | |||
2003 | Paul Lauterbur | United States | "for their discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging"[102] | |
Sir Peter Mansfield | United Kingdom | |||
2004 | Richard Axel | United States | "for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system"[103] | |
Linda B. Buck | United States | |||
2005 | Barry J. Marshall | Australia | "for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease"[104] | |
J. Robin Warren | Australia | |||
2006 | Andrew Z. Fire | United States | "for their discovery of RNA interference - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA"[105] | |
Craig C. Mello | United States | |||
2007 | Mario R. Capecchi | United States | "for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells."[106] | |
Sir Martin J. Evans | United Kingdom | |||
Oliver Smithies | United States | |||
2008 | Harald zur Hausen | Germany | "for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer"[107] |
|
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi | France | "for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus"[107] | ||
Luc Montagnier | France | |||
2009 | Elizabeth H. Blackburn | United States Australia |
"for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase"[108] |
|
Carol W. Greider | United States | |||
Jack W. Szostak | United States United Kingdom |
^ A. The form and spelling of the names in the name column is according to nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Foundation. Alternative spellings and name forms, where they exist, are given at the articles linked from this column. Where available, an image of each Nobel Laureate is provided. For the official pictures provided by the Nobel Foundation, see the pages for each Nobel Laureate at nobelprize.org.
^ B. The information in the country column is according to nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Foundation. This information may not necessarily reflect the recipient's birthplace or citizenship.
^ C. The citation for each award is quoted (not always in full) from nobelprize.org, the official website of the Nobel Foundation. The links in this column are to articles (or sections of articles) on the history and areas of physiology and medicine for which the awards were presented. The links are intended only as a guide and explanation. For a full account of the work done by each Nobel Laureate, please see the biography articles linked from the name column.
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