The 2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded jointly on Monday (October 7th) to Americans William Kaelin and Gregg Semenza and Britain's Peter Ratcliffe for their work on cell oxygenation, the Nobel Academy said.
"The fundamental discoveries made by this year's Nobel laureates unveil the mechanisms of one of life's most vital processes," the academy said in a statement.
Advances for the fight against cancer
"They have laid the foundation for our knowledge of how oxygen levels affect cellular metabolism and physiological functions, and their discoveries have also paved the way for new and promising strategies in the fight against anemia, cancer and many other diseases, "said the committee.
Kaelin works at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the United States, Semenza directs the Vascular Research Program at the John Hopkins Institute of Cell Engineering Research. Ratcliffe is the Director of Clinical Research at the Francis Crick Institute in London and the Target Discovery Institute in Oxford.
The three winners will share the sum of 9 million Swedish kronor (830,000 euros).
Last year, the Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to an American (James P. Allison) and a Japanese (Tasuku Honjo) for their work on cancer treatment.
Two Nobel Literature this year
The Nobel Prize in Medicine is the first of the Nobel Prizes awarded each year. The Nobel Prize for Physics (Tuesday) and Chemistry (Wednesday) will follow.
Thursday will be awarded two Nobel Prize for Literature for 2018 and 2019. Last year, this distinction was not awarded because of the stirrings caused by the accusations of rape, harassment and sexual assault against Jean -Claude Arnault, the husband of the poet Katarina Frostenson, who was then a member of the Academy.
With AFP and Reuters