The two researchers James Allison and Tasuku Honjo receive the Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology this year. Their research has allowed medical professionals to harness the immune system to attack cancer cells.
The Nobel Prize is considered the highest honor for scientists worldwide. He is endowed with nine million Swedish kroner, which corresponds to about 870,000 euros.
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The US immunotherapist James Allison
James Allison dedicated his research to a protein that works as a kind of brake on the immune system. His idea: if this brake were released, the immune cells could attack cancer cells. His work today serves as the basis for new therapies. The American was born in 1948 in Texas. Today, he works as a professor at the University of Texas's MD Anderson Cancer Center.
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The Japanese explorer Tasuku Honjo
Tasuku Honjo also discovered a protein that slows down immune cells - but in a different way. Therapies using this approach are very effective in fighting cancer, the Nobel Prize committee said. The Japanese was born in Kyoto in 1942. He has been a professor at Kyoto University since 1984.
Just in! Nobel laureate Tasuku Honjo, surrounded by his team at Kyoto University, immediately after hearing the news that he had been awarded the 2018 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine. pic.twitter.com/8TdlnXiSLe
- The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 1, 2018The 76-year-old said after the award that he is far from thinking about quitting. "In order to cure even more sick people, I will continue my research for a while," said Honjo to journalists at Kyoto University. He is honored to receive the Nobel Prize. He owes it to "countless people", especially his colleagues, students and other supporters and his family.
Allison also said he was honored. Originally, he did not plan to explore cancer but wanted to better understand the processes of T cells in the immune system - "those incredible cells that travel through our bodies and protect us." The fact that he was now allowed to meet people who have survived the cancer with the help of new therapies show their strength.
Winners set at the last minute
"Cancer kills millions of people every year and is one of the biggest health challenges for humanity," the Nobel Committee said. "By getting the immune system to attack cancer cells, this year's Nobel Prize winners opened up completely new possibilities in cancer treatment." Before that, there had been little progress in the treatment of the disease for a long time.
The announcement of the Nobel Prize is also eagerly awaited by experts, and the award is almost never predictable. Only on the morning before the announcement do 50 professors from the Nobel Prize Group meet at the Karolinska Institute to decide on the award winner. They are based on a list of suggestions.
A decision has been made. Ballots have been counted from the Nobel Assembly.
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Photo: Yanan Li # NobelPrize pic.twitter.com/7kJhcBQKcy
Almost immediately after the committee has chosen the winner, the press conference follows. So there is no danger that the news will be known before the official announcement. There is only one thing left for one thing: the call to the winners. At Tasuku Honjo, the Swedish committee was lucky, he answered the phone. James Allison, however, was not available at that moment.
Last year, US researchers Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash and Michel W. Young received the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology. They have decrypted mechanisms of the day-night rhythm and learned to read our internal clock.