The American Karolinska Institute in Stockholm announced on Monday that Americans William Kyleen, Greg Siemensa and Sir Peter Ratcliffe have won the 2019 Nobel Prize for Medicine, discovering molecular mechanisms in which cells sense oxygen content and adapt to its levels.
The award committee said knowledge of these mechanisms is important for the treatment of many diseases, adding that the discovery paved the way for highly promising strategies to combat anemia, cancers and many other diseases.
The first Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded in 1901.
Last year, two immunologists, James Allison of the United States and Tasco Hongo of Japan, won the Nobel Prize in medicine for their work on discovering new technologies to fight cancer.
Prizes are awarded annually to the winners on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
Starting Monday, the Nobel Prize winners will be announced in various fields.The Nobel Prize winners in the fields of physics, chemistry, literature and peace will be announced this week as well, while the Nobel Prize in Economics will be announced next week.
Apart from economics, other Nobel prizes are awarded according to the will of Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel (1896-1833), inventor of dynamite.
Each year, the prize is worth 9 million kronor (908,000 dollars).