Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Encyclopedia
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation
, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prize
s established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel
, the inventor of dynamite
, in his will. Nobel was personally interested in experimental physiology and wanted to establish a prize for progress through scientific discoveries in laboratories. The Nobel prize is presented to the recipient(s) at an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death, along with a diploma and a certificate for the monetary award. The front side of the medal provides the same profile of Alfred Nobel
as depicted on the medals for Physics, Chemistry, and Literature; its reverse side is unique to this medal.
As of 2011, 102 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded to 199 men, and 10 women. The first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded in 1901 to the German
physiologist Emil Adolf von Behring
, for his work on serum
therapy and the development of a vaccine against diphtheria
. The first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Gerty Cori
, received it in 1947 for her role in elucidating the metabolism of glucose
, important in many aspects of medicine, including treatment of diabetes. In 2011, the prize was awarded to Bruce Beutler of the United States
and Jules A. Hoffmann
of France
"for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity" and to Ralph M. Steinman
of Canada
"for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity."
Some awards have been controversial. This includes one to António Egas Moniz in 1949 for the prefrontal leucotomy
, bestowed despite protests from the medical establishment. Other controversies resulted from disagreements over who was included in the award. The 1952 prize to Selman Waksman
was litigated in court, and half the patent rights awarded to his co-discoverer Albert Schatz
who was not recognized by the prize. The 1962 prize awarded to James D. Watson
, Francis Crick
and Maurice Wilkins
for their work on DNA
structure and properties did not acknowledge the contributing work from others, such as Oswald Avery
and Rosalind Franklin
who had died by the time of the nomination. Since the Nobel Prize rules forbid nominations of the deceased, longevity is an asset, one prize being awarded as long as 50 years after the discovery. Also forbidden is awarding any one prize to more than three recipients, and since in the last half century there has been an increasing tendency for scientists to work as teams, this rule has resulted in controversial exclusions.
Alfred Nobel
was born on October 21, 1833 in Stockholm
, Sweden into a family of engineers. He was a chemist, engineer and inventor who amassed a fortune during his lifetime, most of it from his 355 inventions of which dynamite is the most famous. He was interested in experimental physiology and set up his own labs in France and Italy to conduct experiments in blood transfusions. Keeping abreast of scientific findings, he was generous in his donations to Ivan Pavlov
's laboratory in Russia, and was optimistic about the progress resulting from scientific discoveries made in laboratories.
In 1888, Nobel was surprised to read his own obituary, titled ‘The merchant of death is dead’, in a French newspaper. As it happened, it was Nobel's brother Ludvig
who had died, but Nobel, unhappy with the content of the obituary and concerned that his legacy would reflect poorly on him, was inspired to change his will. In his last will, Nobel requested that his money be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics
, chemistry
, peace
, physiology
or medicine
, and literature
. Though Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime, the last was written a little over a year before he died at the age of 63. Because his will was contested, it was not approved by the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) until April 26, 1897.
After Nobel's death, the Nobel Foundation
was set up to manage the assets of the bequest. In 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly created statute
s were promulgated by Swedish King Oscar II
. According to Nobel's will, the Karolinska Institutet
in Sweden, a medical school and research center, is responsible for the Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Today the prize is commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Per the provisions of the will, only select persons are eligible to nominate individuals for the award. These include members of academies around the world, professors of medicine in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Finland, as well as professors of selected universities and research institutions in other lands. Past Nobel laureates may also nominate. Until 1977, all professors of Karolinska Institutet together decided on the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. That year, changes in Swedish law forced the Institute to make any documents pertaining to the Nobel Prize public and it was considered necessary to establish a legally independent body for the Prize work. Therefore, the Nobel Assembly was constituted, consisting of 50 professors at Karolinska Institutet. It elects the Nobel Committee with 5 members who evaluate the nominees, the Secretary who is in charge of the organization, and each year 10 adjunct members to assist in the evaluation of candidates. In 1968, a provision was added that no more than three persons may share a Nobel prize. The 2011 winners were announced October 3, 2011.
True to its mandate, the Committee has selected researchers working in the basic sciences over those who have made applied contributions. Harvey Cushing
, a pioneering American neurosurgeon who identified Cushing's syndrome
never was awarded the prize, nor was Sigmund Freud
, as his psychoanalysis
lacks hypotheses that can be tested experimentally. The public expected Jonas Salk
or Albert Sabin
to win the prize for their development of the polio vaccine
s, but instead the award went to John Enders, Thomas Weller
, and Frederick Robbins whose basic discovery that the polio virus could reproduce in monkey cells in laboratory preparations was a fundamental finding that led to the elimination of the disease of polio.
Through the 1930s, there were frequent prize winners in classical Physiology
, but after that the field began dissolving into specialties. The last classical physiology winners were John Eccles, Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley
in 1963 for their findings regarding "unitary electrical events in the central and peripheral nervous system."
, a diploma
bearing a citation
, and a sum of money. These are awarded at the Nobel Banquet.
in Sweden are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation. Each medal features an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the obverse (front side of the medal). The Nobel Prize medals for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature have identical obverses, showing the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death (1833–1896). Before 1980, the medals were made of 23K gold; since then the medals are of 18K green gold, plated with 23K gold.
The medal awarded by the Karolinska Institute displays an image of "the Genius of Medicine holding an open book in her lap, collecting the water pouring out from a rock in order to quench a sick girl's thirst." The medal is inscribed with words taken from Virgil's Aeneid
and reads: Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes, which translates to "inventions enhance life which is beautified through art."
can award that year, and is awarded in Swedish kronor (SEK). The first award in 1901 was for 150,782 kronor (7,872,648 kronor in 2009 value). In 2009, the prize money totaled 10,000,000 kronor. If there are two winners in a particular category, the award grant is divided equally between the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of dividing the grant equally, or awarding one-half to one recipient and one-quarter to each of the others.
The first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded in 1901 to the German
physiologist Emil Adolf von Behring
. Behring's discovery of serum therapy in the development of the diphtheria and tetanus vaccines put "in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths". In 1902, the award went to Ronald Ross
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". He identified the mosquito as the transmitter of malaria, and worked tirelessly on measures to prevent malaria worldwide. The 1903 prize was awarded to Niels Ryberg Finsen
, the first Danish winner, "in recognition of his contribution to the treatment of diseases, especially lupus vulgaris
, with concentrated light radiation, whereby he has opened a new avenue for medical science". He died within a year after receiving the prize at the age of 43. Pavlov, whose work Nobel admired and supported, won the prize in 1904 for his work on the physiology of digestion
.
Subsequently, those selecting the recipients have exercised wide latitude in determining what falls under the umbrella of Physiology or Medicine. The awarding of the prize in 1973 to Nikolaas Tinbergen
, Konrad Lorenz
and Karl von Frisch
for their observations of animal behavioral patterns could be considered a prize in the behavioral sciences rather than medicine or physiology.
Tinbergen expressed surprise in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech at "the unconventional decision of the Nobel Foundation to award this year’s prize ‘for Physiology or Medicine’ to three men who had until recently been regarded as ‘mere animal watchers’".
Laureates have won the Nobel Prize in a wide range of fields that relate to physiology or medicine. , eight Prizes have been awarded for contributions in the field of signal transduction
through G protein
s and second messengers. 13 have been awarded for contributions in the field of neurobiology and 13 have been awarded for contributions in Intermediary metabolism
. The 100 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded to 195 individuals through 2009. 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). Only one woman, Barbara McClintock, has won an unshared prize in this category, for the discovery of genetic transposition
. Mario Capecchi
, Martin Evans
and Oliver Smithies
won the prize in 2007 for the discovery of a gene targeting
procedure (a type of genetic recombination
) for introducing homologous recombination
in mice, employing embryonic stem cell
s through the development of the knockout mouse
. There have been 37 times when the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to a single individual, 31 times when it was shared by two, and 33 times there were three winners (the maximum allowed).
In 2009, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Elizabeth Blackburn
, Carol W. Greider
and Jack W. Szostak
of the United States
for discovering the process by which chromosome
s are protected by telomere
s (regions of repetitive DNA
at the ends of chromosome
s) and the enzyme telomerase
; they shared the prize of 10,000,000 SEK
(slightly more than €
1 million, or US$
1.4 million). Rita Levi-Montalcini, an Italian
neurologist
, who together with colleague Stanley Cohen, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of Nerve growth factor (NGF)
, is the oldest living Nobel Laureate, being over 100 .
Nobel laurate Carol Greider's research leading to the prize was conducted over 20 years before. She noted that the passage of time is an advantage in the medical sciences, as it may take many years for the significance of a discovery to become apparent. The 2009 award in medicine was the first in the Nobel Prize's history that more than one woman has been the recipient of the Nobel Prize in a single year. It is also the first time two women have be awarded the Physiology or Medicine prize.
In 2011, Canadian immunologist Ralph M. Steinman
was awarded the prize; however, unknown to the committee, he had died three days before the announcement. The committee decided that since the prize was awarded "in good faith," it would be allowed to stand.
as a central hormone for controlling diabetes (awarded only a year after its discovery) has been heatedly debated. It was shared between Frederick Banting
and John Macleod; this infuriated Banting who regarded Macleod's involvement as minimal. Macleod was the department head at the University of Toronto
but otherwise was not directly involved in the findings. Banting thought his laboratory partner Charles Best, who had shared in the laboratory work of discovery, should have shared the prize with him as well. In fairness, he decided to give half of his prize money to Best. Macleod on his part felt the biochemist James Collip
, who joined the laboratory team later, deserved to be included in the award and shared his prize money with him. Moreover, Nicolae Paulescu
, a Romanian
professor of physiology at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest
, was the first to isolate insulin, in 1916, which he called at that time, pancrein. By the time Banting also isolated insulin after reading and citing Paulescu's published work ("Research on the Role of the Pancreas in Food Assimilation",) in the paper that brought him the Nobel, Paulescu already held a patent for his discovery (April 10, 1922, patent no. 6254 (8322) "Pancreina şi procedeul fabricaţiei ei"/"Pancrein and the process of making it", from the Romanian Ministry of Industry
and Trade).
In 1949, despite protests from the medical establishment, the Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz received the Physiology or Medicine Prize for his development of the prefrontal leucotomy, which he promoted by declaring the procedure's success just 10 days postoperative. Due largely to the publicity surrounding the award, it was prescribed without regard for modern medical ethics
. Favorable results were reported by such publications as The New York Times
. It is estimated that around 40,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States before the procedure's popularity faded. Joseph Kennedy, the father of John Kennedy
, subjected his daughter, Rosemary
, to the procedure which incapacitated her to the degree that she needed to be institutionalized for the rest of her life.
The 1952 prize, awarded solely to Selman Waksman
for his discovery of streptomycin
, omitted the recognition some felt due to his co-discoverer Albert Schatz
. There was litigation brought by Schatz against Waksman over the details and credit of the streptomycin discovery; Schatz was awarded a substantial settlement, and, together with Waksman, Schatz was to be officially recognized as a co-discoverer of streptomycin as far as patent rights. However, he is not recognized as a Nobel Prize winner.
The 1962 Prize awarded to James D. Watson
, Francis Crick
and Maurice Wilkins
—for their work on DNA
structure and properties—did not recognize contributing work from others, such as Alec Stokes
and Herbert Wilson
. In addition, Erwin Chargaff
, Oswald Avery
and Rosalind Franklin
(whose key DNA x-ray crystallography
work was the most detailed yet least acknowledged among the three) contributed directly to the ability of Watson and Crick to solve the structure of the DNA molecule—but Avery died in 1955, and Franklin in 1958 and posthumous nominations for the Nobel Prize are not permitted. However, recently unsealed files of the Nobel Prize nominations reveal that no one ever nominated Franklin for the prize when she was alive. Wilkins' only contribution was to show Rosa Franklin's key x-ray photos to Watson. As a result of Watson's misrepresentations of Franklin and her role in the discovery of the double helix in his controversial book The Double Helix
, Franklin has come to be portrayed as a classic victim of sexism in science. Chargaff, for his part, was not quiet about his exclusion from the prize, bitterly writing to other scientists about his disillusionment regarding the field of molecular biology.
The 2008 award went to Harald zur Hausen
in recognition of his discovery of the human papillomavirus (HPV) causing cervical cancer
, and to Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
and Luc Montagnier
for discovering the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Whether Robert Gallo
or Luc Montagnier deserved more credit for the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS has been a matter of considerable controversy. As it was, Gallo was left out and not awarded a prize. Additionally, there was scandal when it was learned that Harald zur Hausen was being investigated for having a financial interest in vaccines for the cervical cancer HPV can cause. AstraZeneca
, which has a stake in two lucrative HPV vaccines therefore can gain financially from the prize, had agreed to sponsor Nobel Media and Nobel Web. According to Times Online, two senior figures in the selection process that chose zur Hausen also had strong links with AstraZeneca.
's Third Reich forbade Gerhard Domagk
from accepting his prize. He was later able to receive the diploma and medal but not the money.
Nobel Foundation
The Nobel Foundation is a private institution founded on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. The Foundation is based on the last will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite....
, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
s established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel
Alfred Nobel
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments...
, the inventor of dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
, in his will. Nobel was personally interested in experimental physiology and wanted to establish a prize for progress through scientific discoveries in laboratories. The Nobel prize is presented to the recipient(s) at an annual ceremony on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death, along with a diploma and a certificate for the monetary award. The front side of the medal provides the same profile of Alfred Nobel
Alfred Nobel
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments...
as depicted on the medals for Physics, Chemistry, and Literature; its reverse side is unique to this medal.
As of 2011, 102 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded to 199 men, and 10 women. The first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded in 1901 to the German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
physiologist Emil Adolf von Behring
Emil Adolf von Behring
Emil Adolf von Behring was a German physiologist who received the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first one so awarded.-Biography:...
, for his work on serum
Blood plasma
Blood plasma is the straw-colored liquid component of blood in which the blood cells in whole blood are normally suspended. It makes up about 55% of the total blood volume. It is the intravascular fluid part of extracellular fluid...
therapy and the development of a vaccine against diphtheria
Diphtheria
Diphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
. The first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Gerty Cori
Gerty Cori
Gerty Theresa Cori was an American biochemist who became the third woman—and first American woman—to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Cori was born in Prague...
, received it in 1947 for her role in elucidating the metabolism of glucose
Glucose
Glucose is a simple sugar and an important carbohydrate in biology. Cells use it as the primary source of energy and a metabolic intermediate...
, important in many aspects of medicine, including treatment of diabetes. In 2011, the prize was awarded to Bruce Beutler of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
and Jules A. Hoffmann
Jules A. Hoffmann
Jules A. Hoffmann is a Luxembourgish-born French biologist. He is a research director and member of the board of administrators of the National Center of Scientific Research in Strasbourg, France. In 2007, he became President of the French Academy of Sciences...
of France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
"for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity" and to Ralph M. Steinman
Ralph M. Steinman
Ralph Marvin Steinman was a Canadian immunologist and cell biologist at Rockefeller University, who in 1973 coined the term dendritic cells while working as a postdoc in the lab of Zanvil A. Cohn, also at Rockefeller University....
of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
"for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity."
Some awards have been controversial. This includes one to António Egas Moniz in 1949 for the prefrontal leucotomy
Lobotomy
Lobotomy "; τομή – tomē: "cut/slice") is a neurosurgical procedure, a form of psychosurgery, also known as a leukotomy or leucotomy . It consists of cutting the connections to and from the prefrontal cortex, the anterior part of the frontal lobes of the brain...
, bestowed despite protests from the medical establishment. Other controversies resulted from disagreements over who was included in the award. The 1952 prize to Selman Waksman
Selman Waksman
Selman Abraham Waksman was an American biochemist and microbiologist whose research into organic substances—largely into organisms that live in soil—and their decomposition promoted the discovery of Streptomycin, and several other antibiotics...
was litigated in court, and half the patent rights awarded to his co-discoverer Albert Schatz
Albert Schatz (scientist)
Albert Schatz was the co-discoverer of streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy used to treat tuberculosis and a number of other diseases...
who was not recognized by the prize. The 1962 prize awarded to James D. Watson
James D. Watson
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
, Francis Crick
Francis Crick
Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
and Maurice Wilkins
Maurice Wilkins
Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins CBE FRS was a New Zealand-born English physicist and molecular biologist, and Nobel Laureate whose research contributed to the scientific understanding of phosphorescence, isotope separation, optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction, and to the development of radar...
for their work on DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
structure and properties did not acknowledge the contributing work from others, such as Oswald Avery
Oswald Avery
Oswald Theodore Avery ForMemRS was a Canadian-born American physician and medical researcher. The major part of his career was spent at the Rockefeller University Hospital in New York City...
and Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Elsie Franklin was a British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who made critical contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal and graphite...
who had died by the time of the nomination. Since the Nobel Prize rules forbid nominations of the deceased, longevity is an asset, one prize being awarded as long as 50 years after the discovery. Also forbidden is awarding any one prize to more than three recipients, and since in the last half century there has been an increasing tendency for scientists to work as teams, this rule has resulted in controversial exclusions.
Background
Alfred Nobel
Alfred Bernhard Nobel was a Swedish chemist, engineer, innovator, and armaments manufacturer. He is the inventor of dynamite. Nobel also owned Bofors, which he had redirected from its previous role as primarily an iron and steel producer to a major manufacturer of cannon and other armaments...
was born on October 21, 1833 in Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
, Sweden into a family of engineers. He was a chemist, engineer and inventor who amassed a fortune during his lifetime, most of it from his 355 inventions of which dynamite is the most famous. He was interested in experimental physiology and set up his own labs in France and Italy to conduct experiments in blood transfusions. Keeping abreast of scientific findings, he was generous in his donations to Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was a famous Russian physiologist. Although he made significant contributions to psychology, he was not in fact a psychologist himself but was a mathematician and actually had strong distaste for the field....
's laboratory in Russia, and was optimistic about the progress resulting from scientific discoveries made in laboratories.
In 1888, Nobel was surprised to read his own obituary, titled ‘The merchant of death is dead’, in a French newspaper. As it happened, it was Nobel's brother Ludvig
Ludvig Nobel
Ludvig Immanuel Nobel was an engineer, a noted businessman and a humanitarian. One of the most prominent members of the Nobel family, he was the son of Immanuel Nobel and Alfred Nobel's older brother...
who had died, but Nobel, unhappy with the content of the obituary and concerned that his legacy would reflect poorly on him, was inspired to change his will. In his last will, Nobel requested that his money be used to create a series of prizes for those who confer the "greatest benefit on mankind" in physics
Physics
Physics is a natural science that involves the study of matter and its motion through spacetime, along with related concepts such as energy and force. More broadly, it is the general analysis of nature, conducted in order to understand how the universe behaves.Physics is one of the oldest academic...
, chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
, peace
Peace
Peace is a state of harmony characterized by the lack of violent conflict. Commonly understood as the absence of hostility, peace also suggests the existence of healthy or newly healed interpersonal or international relationships, prosperity in matters of social or economic welfare, the...
, physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
or medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
, and literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
. Though Nobel wrote several wills during his lifetime, the last was written a little over a year before he died at the age of 63. Because his will was contested, it was not approved by the Storting (Norwegian Parliament) until April 26, 1897.
After Nobel's death, the Nobel Foundation
Nobel Foundation
The Nobel Foundation is a private institution founded on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. The Foundation is based on the last will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite....
was set up to manage the assets of the bequest. In 1900, the Nobel Foundation's newly created statute
Statute
A statute is a formal written enactment of a legislative authority that governs a state, city, or county. Typically, statutes command or prohibit something, or declare policy. The word is often used to distinguish law made by legislative bodies from case law, decided by courts, and regulations...
s were promulgated by Swedish King Oscar II
Oscar II of Sweden
Oscar II , baptised Oscar Fredrik was King of Sweden from 1872 until his death and King of Norway from 1872 until 1905. The third son of King Oscar I of Sweden and Josephine of Leuchtenberg, he was a descendant of Gustav I of Sweden through his mother.-Early life:At his birth in Stockholm, Oscar...
. According to Nobel's will, the Karolinska Institutet
Karolinska Institutet
Karolinska institutet is a medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area, Sweden, and one of Europe's largest medical universities...
in Sweden, a medical school and research center, is responsible for the Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Today the prize is commonly referred to as the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Nomination and selection
It was important to Nobel that the prize be awarded for a "discovery" and that it was of "greatest benefit on mankind".Per the provisions of the will, only select persons are eligible to nominate individuals for the award. These include members of academies around the world, professors of medicine in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Finland, as well as professors of selected universities and research institutions in other lands. Past Nobel laureates may also nominate. Until 1977, all professors of Karolinska Institutet together decided on the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. That year, changes in Swedish law forced the Institute to make any documents pertaining to the Nobel Prize public and it was considered necessary to establish a legally independent body for the Prize work. Therefore, the Nobel Assembly was constituted, consisting of 50 professors at Karolinska Institutet. It elects the Nobel Committee with 5 members who evaluate the nominees, the Secretary who is in charge of the organization, and each year 10 adjunct members to assist in the evaluation of candidates. In 1968, a provision was added that no more than three persons may share a Nobel prize. The 2011 winners were announced October 3, 2011.
True to its mandate, the Committee has selected researchers working in the basic sciences over those who have made applied contributions. Harvey Cushing
Harvey Cushing
Harvey Williams Cushing, M.D. , was an American neurosurgeon and a pioneer of brain surgery, and the first to describe Cushing's syndrome...
, a pioneering American neurosurgeon who identified Cushing's syndrome
Cushing's syndrome
Cushing's syndrome is a hormone disorder caused by high levels of cortisol in the blood. This can be caused by taking glucocorticoid drugs, or by tumors that produce cortisol or adrenocorticotropic hormone or CRH...
never was awarded the prize, nor was Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
, as his psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis
Psychoanalysis is a psychological theory developed in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud. Psychoanalysis has expanded, been criticized and developed in different directions, mostly by some of Freud's former students, such as Alfred Adler and Carl Gustav...
lacks hypotheses that can be tested experimentally. The public expected Jonas Salk
Jonas Salk
Jonas Edward Salk was an American medical researcher and virologist, best known for his discovery and development of the first safe and effective polio vaccine. He was born in New York City to parents from Ashkenazi Jewish Russian immigrant families...
or Albert Sabin
Albert Sabin
Albert Bruce Sabin was an American medical researcher best known for having developed an oral polio vaccine.-Life:...
to win the prize for their development of the polio vaccine
Polio vaccine
Two polio vaccines are used throughout the world to combat poliomyelitis . The first was developed by Jonas Salk and first tested in 1952. Announced to the world by Salk on April 12, 1955, it consists of an injected dose of inactivated poliovirus. An oral vaccine was developed by Albert Sabin...
s, but instead the award went to John Enders, Thomas Weller
Thomas Weller
Thomas Christian Weller is a German footballer who plays for FC Schaffhausen.-External links: *...
, and Frederick Robbins whose basic discovery that the polio virus could reproduce in monkey cells in laboratory preparations was a fundamental finding that led to the elimination of the disease of polio.
Through the 1930s, there were frequent prize winners in classical Physiology
Physiology
Physiology is the science of the function of living systems. This includes how organisms, organ systems, organs, cells, and bio-molecules carry out the chemical or physical functions that exist in a living system. The highest honor awarded in physiology is the Nobel Prize in Physiology or...
, but after that the field began dissolving into specialties. The last classical physiology winners were John Eccles, Alan Hodgkin and Andrew Huxley
Andrew Huxley
Sir Andrew Fielding Huxley, OM, FRS is an English physiologist and biophysicist, who won the 1963 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his experimental and mathematical work with Sir Alan Lloyd Hodgkin on the basis of nerve action potentials, the electrical impulses that enable the activity...
in 1963 for their findings regarding "unitary electrical events in the central and peripheral nervous system."
Prizes
A Medicine or Physiology Nobel Prize laureate, earns a gold medalGold medal
A gold medal is typically the medal awarded for highest achievement in a non-military field. Its name derives from the use of at least a fraction of gold in form of plating or alloying in its manufacture...
, a diploma
Diploma
A diploma is a certificate or deed issued by an educational institution, such as a university, that testifies that the recipient has successfully completed a particular course of study or confers an academic degree. In countries such as the United Kingdom and Australia, the word diploma refers to...
bearing a citation
Citation
Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source . More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated alphanumeric expression Broadly, a citation is a reference to a published or unpublished source (not always the original source). More precisely, a citation is an abbreviated...
, and a sum of money. These are awarded at the Nobel Banquet.
Medals
The Nobel Prize medals, minted by MyntverketMyntverket
Myntverket is a private Swedish company that produces coins and medals, most notably the Swedish national coins and the Nobel Prize medals. As of 2008, Swedish coins are now minted by Myntverket's parent company, Mint of Finland Ltd in Helsinki, Finland, ending a 1012 year history of minting...
in Sweden are registered trademarks of the Nobel Foundation. Each medal features an image of Alfred Nobel in left profile on the obverse (front side of the medal). The Nobel Prize medals for Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, and Literature have identical obverses, showing the image of Alfred Nobel and the years of his birth and death (1833–1896). Before 1980, the medals were made of 23K gold; since then the medals are of 18K green gold, plated with 23K gold.
The medal awarded by the Karolinska Institute displays an image of "the Genius of Medicine holding an open book in her lap, collecting the water pouring out from a rock in order to quench a sick girl's thirst." The medal is inscribed with words taken from Virgil's Aeneid
Aeneid
The Aeneid is a Latin epic poem, written by Virgil between 29 and 19 BC, that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Trojan who travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Romans. It is composed of roughly 10,000 lines in dactylic hexameter...
and reads: Inventas vitam juvat excoluisse per artes, which translates to "inventions enhance life which is beautified through art."
Diplomas
Nobel laureates receive a Diploma directly from the King of Sweden. Each Diploma is uniquely designed by the prize-awarding institutions for the laureate that receives it. In the case of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, that is the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute. Well known artists and calligraphers from Sweden are commissioned to create it. The Diploma contains a picture and text which states the name of the laureate and a citation as to why they received the prize.Award money
The amount of prize money fluctuates depending on how much money the Nobel FoundationNobel Foundation
The Nobel Foundation is a private institution founded on 29 June 1900 to manage the finances and administration of the Nobel Prizes. The Foundation is based on the last will of Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite....
can award that year, and is awarded in Swedish kronor (SEK). The first award in 1901 was for 150,782 kronor (7,872,648 kronor in 2009 value). In 2009, the prize money totaled 10,000,000 kronor. If there are two winners in a particular category, the award grant is divided equally between the recipients. If there are three, the awarding committee has the option of dividing the grant equally, or awarding one-half to one recipient and one-quarter to each of the others.
Ceremony and banquet
The awards are bestowed at a gala ceremony followed by a banquet. The Nobel Banquet is a extravagant affair with the menu, planned months ahead of time, kept secret until the day of the event. The Nobel Foundation chooses the menu after tasting and testing selections submitted by selected chefs of international repute. Currently it is a three course dinner, although it was originally six courses when it began in 1901. Every Nobel Prize winner is allowed to bring up to 16 guests, and Sweden's royal family is always there. Typically the Prime Minister and other members of the government attend as well as representatives of the Nobel family.Laureates
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
physiologist Emil Adolf von Behring
Emil Adolf von Behring
Emil Adolf von Behring was a German physiologist who received the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first one so awarded.-Biography:...
. Behring's discovery of serum therapy in the development of the diphtheria and tetanus vaccines put "in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths". In 1902, the award went to Ronald Ross
Ronald Ross
Sir Ronald Ross KCB FRS was a British doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria. He was the first Indian-born person to win a Nobel Prize...
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". He identified the mosquito as the transmitter of malaria, and worked tirelessly on measures to prevent malaria worldwide. The 1903 prize was awarded to Niels Ryberg Finsen
Niels Ryberg Finsen
Niels Ryberg Finsen was a Faroese-Danish physician and scientist of Icelandic descent. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology in 1903 "in recognition of his contribution to the treatment of diseases, especially lupus vulgaris, with concentrated light radiation, whereby he has...
, the first Danish winner, "in recognition of his contribution to the treatment of diseases, especially lupus vulgaris
Lupus vulgaris
Lupus vulgaris are painful cutaneous tuberculosis skin lesions with nodular appearance, most often on the face around nose, eyelids, lips, cheeks and ears. The lesions may ultimately develop into disfiguring skin ulcers if left untreated...
, with concentrated light radiation, whereby he has opened a new avenue for medical science". He died within a year after receiving the prize at the age of 43. Pavlov, whose work Nobel admired and supported, won the prize in 1904 for his work on the physiology of digestion
Digestion
Digestion is the mechanical and chemical breakdown of food into smaller components that are more easily absorbed into a blood stream, for instance. Digestion is a form of catabolism: a breakdown of large food molecules to smaller ones....
.
Subsequently, those selecting the recipients have exercised wide latitude in determining what falls under the umbrella of Physiology or Medicine. The awarding of the prize in 1973 to Nikolaas Tinbergen
Nikolaas Tinbergen
Nikolaas "Niko" Tinbergen was a Dutch ethologist and ornithologist who shared the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Karl von Frisch and Konrad Lorenz for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns in animals.In the 1960s he...
, Konrad Lorenz
Konrad Lorenz
Konrad Zacharias Lorenz was an Austrian zoologist, ethologist, and ornithologist. He shared the 1973 Nobel Prize with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Karl von Frisch...
and Karl von Frisch
Karl von Frisch
Karl Ritter von Frisch was an Austrian ethologist who received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1973, along with Nikolaas Tinbergen and Konrad Lorenz....
for their observations of animal behavioral patterns could be considered a prize in the behavioral sciences rather than medicine or physiology.
Tinbergen expressed surprise in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech at "the unconventional decision of the Nobel Foundation to award this year’s prize ‘for Physiology or Medicine’ to three men who had until recently been regarded as ‘mere animal watchers’".
Laureates have won the Nobel Prize in a wide range of fields that relate to physiology or medicine. , eight Prizes have been awarded for contributions in the field of signal transduction
Signal transduction
Signal transduction occurs when an extracellular signaling molecule activates a cell surface receptor. In turn, this receptor alters intracellular molecules creating a response...
through G protein
G protein
G proteins are a family of proteins involved in transmitting chemical signals outside the cell, and causing changes inside the cell. They communicate signals from many hormones, neurotransmitters, and other signaling factors. G protein-coupled receptors are transmembrane receptors...
s and second messengers. 13 have been awarded for contributions in the field of neurobiology and 13 have been awarded for contributions in Intermediary metabolism
Metabolism
Metabolism is the set of chemical reactions that happen in the cells of living organisms to sustain life. These processes allow organisms to grow and reproduce, maintain their structures, and respond to their environments. Metabolism is usually divided into two categories...
. The 100 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded to 195 individuals through 2009. Ten women have won the prize: Gerty Cori
Gerty Cori
Gerty Theresa Cori was an American biochemist who became the third woman—and first American woman—to win a Nobel Prize in science, and the first woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Cori was born in Prague...
(1947), Rosalyn Yalow (1977), Barbara McClintock
Barbara McClintock
Barbara McClintock , the 1983 Nobel Laureate in Physiology or Medicine, was an American scientist and one of the world's most distinguished cytogeneticists. McClintock received her PhD in botany from Cornell University in 1927, where she was a leader in the development of maize cytogenetics...
(1983), Rita Levi-Montalcini
Rita Levi-Montalcini
Rita Levi-Montalcini , Knight Grand Cross is an Italian neurologist who, together with colleague Stanley Cohen, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of nerve growth factor...
(1986), Gertrude B. Elion (1988), Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard
Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard is a German biologist who won the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1991 and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1995, together with Eric Wieschaus and Edward B...
(1995), Linda B. Buck
Linda B. Buck
Linda Brown Buck is an American biologist best known for her work on the olfactory system. She was awarded the 2004 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with Richard Axel, for their work on olfactory receptors....
(2004), Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is a French virologist and director of the Unité de Régulation des Infections Rétrovirales at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. Born in Paris, France, Barré-Sinoussi performed some of the fundamental work in the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus as...
(2008), Elizabeth H. Blackburn (2009) and Carol W. Greider
Carol W. Greider
Carolyn Widney "Carol" Greider is an American molecular biologist. She is Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University. She discovered the enzyme telomerase in 1984, when she was a graduate student of Elizabeth Blackburn at the University of...
(2009). Only one woman, Barbara McClintock, has won an unshared prize in this category, for the discovery of genetic transposition
Transposon
Transposable elements are sequences of DNA that can move or transpose themselves to new positions within the genome of a single cell. The mechanism of transposition can be either "copy and paste" or "cut and paste". Transposition can create phenotypically significant mutations and alter the cell's...
. Mario Capecchi
Mario Capecchi
Mario Renato Capecchi is an Italian-born American molecular geneticist and a co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering a method for introducing homologous recombination in mice employing embryonic stem cells, with Martin Evans and Oliver Smithies...
, Martin Evans
Martin Evans
Sir Martin John Evans FRS is a British scientist who, with Matthew Kaufman, was the first to culture mice embryonic stem cells and cultivate them in a laboratory in 1981...
and Oliver Smithies
Oliver Smithies
Oliver Smithies is a British-born American geneticist and Nobel laureate, credited with the invention of gel electrophoresis in 1955, and the simultaneous discovery, with Mario Capecchi and Martin Evans, of the technique of homologous recombination of transgenic DNA with genomic DNA, a much more...
won the prize in 2007 for the discovery of a gene targeting
Gene targeting
Gene targeting is a genetic technique that uses homologous recombination to change an endogenous gene. The method can be used to delete a gene, remove exons, add a gene, and introduce point mutations. Gene targeting can be permanent or conditional...
procedure (a type of genetic recombination
Genetic recombination
Genetic recombination is a process by which a molecule of nucleic acid is broken and then joined to a different one. Recombination can occur between similar molecules of DNA, as in homologous recombination, or dissimilar molecules, as in non-homologous end joining. Recombination is a common method...
) for introducing homologous recombination
Homologous recombination
Homologous recombination is a type of genetic recombination in which nucleotide sequences are exchanged between two similar or identical molecules of DNA. It is most widely used by cells to accurately repair harmful breaks that occur on both strands of DNA, known as double-strand breaks...
in mice, employing embryonic stem cell
Embryonic stem cell
Embryonic stem cells are pluripotent stem cells derived from the inner cell mass of the blastocyst, an early-stage embryo. Human embryos reach the blastocyst stage 4–5 days post fertilization, at which time they consist of 50–150 cells...
s through the development of the knockout mouse
Knockout mouse
A knockout mouse is a genetically engineered mouse in which researchers have inactivated, or "knocked out," an existing gene by replacing it or disrupting it with an artificial piece of DNA...
. There have been 37 times when the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to a single individual, 31 times when it was shared by two, and 33 times there were three winners (the maximum allowed).
In 2009, the Nobel Prize was awarded to Elizabeth Blackburn
Elizabeth Blackburn
Elizabeth Helen Blackburn, AC, FRS is an Australian-born American biological researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who studies the telomere, a structure at the end of chromosomes that protects the chromosome. Blackburn co-discovered telomerase, the enzyme that replenishes the...
, Carol W. Greider
Carol W. Greider
Carolyn Widney "Carol" Greider is an American molecular biologist. She is Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics at Johns Hopkins University. She discovered the enzyme telomerase in 1984, when she was a graduate student of Elizabeth Blackburn at the University of...
and Jack W. Szostak
Jack W. Szostak
Jack William Szostak is a Canadian American biologist of Polish British descent and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Alexander Rich Distinguished Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston. He was awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with...
of the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for discovering the process by which chromosome
Chromosome
A chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions.Chromosomes...
s are protected by telomere
Telomere
A telomere is a region of repetitive DNA sequences at the end of a chromosome, which protects the end of the chromosome from deterioration or from fusion with neighboring chromosomes. Its name is derived from the Greek nouns telos "end" and merοs "part"...
s (regions of repetitive DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
at the ends of chromosome
Chromosome
A chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein found in cells. It is a single piece of coiled DNA containing many genes, regulatory elements and other nucleotide sequences. Chromosomes also contain DNA-bound proteins, which serve to package the DNA and control its functions.Chromosomes...
s) and the enzyme telomerase
Telomerase
Telomerase is an enzyme that adds DNA sequence repeats to the 3' end of DNA strands in the telomere regions, which are found at the ends of eukaryotic chromosomes. This region of repeated nucleotide called telomeres contains non-coding DNA material and prevents constant loss of important DNA from...
; they shared the prize of 10,000,000 SEK
Swedish krona
The krona has been the currency of Sweden since 1873. Both the ISO code "SEK" and currency sign "kr" are in common use; the former precedes or follows the value, the latter usually follows it, but especially in the past, it sometimes preceded the value...
(slightly more than €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
1 million, or US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
1.4 million). Rita Levi-Montalcini, an Italian
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
neurologist
Neurology
Neurology is a medical specialty dealing with disorders of the nervous system. Specifically, it deals with the diagnosis and treatment of all categories of disease involving the central, peripheral, and autonomic nervous systems, including their coverings, blood vessels, and all effector tissue,...
, who together with colleague Stanley Cohen, received the 1986 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of Nerve growth factor (NGF)
Nerve growth factor
Nerve growth factor is a small secreted protein that is important for the growth, maintenance, and survival of certain target neurons . It also functions as a signaling molecule. It is perhaps the prototypical growth factor, in that it is one of the first to be described...
, is the oldest living Nobel Laureate, being over 100 .
Time factor and death
Because of the length of time that may pass before the significance of a discovery becomes apparent, some prizes are awarded many years after the initial discovery. Barbara McClintock made her discoveries in 1944, before the structure of the DNA molecule was known; she was not awarded the prize until 1983. Similarly, in 1916 Peyton Rous discovered the role of tumor viruses in chickens, but was not awarded the prize until 50 years later, in 1966.Nobel laurate Carol Greider's research leading to the prize was conducted over 20 years before. She noted that the passage of time is an advantage in the medical sciences, as it may take many years for the significance of a discovery to become apparent. The 2009 award in medicine was the first in the Nobel Prize's history that more than one woman has been the recipient of the Nobel Prize in a single year. It is also the first time two women have be awarded the Physiology or Medicine prize.
In 2011, Canadian immunologist Ralph M. Steinman
Ralph M. Steinman
Ralph Marvin Steinman was a Canadian immunologist and cell biologist at Rockefeller University, who in 1973 coined the term dendritic cells while working as a postdoc in the lab of Zanvil A. Cohn, also at Rockefeller University....
was awarded the prize; however, unknown to the committee, he had died three days before the announcement. The committee decided that since the prize was awarded "in good faith," it would be allowed to stand.
Controversial inclusions and exclusions
Some of the awards have been controversial. Who was deserving of the 1923 prize for the discovery of insulinInsulin
Insulin is a hormone central to regulating carbohydrate and fat metabolism in the body. Insulin causes cells in the liver, muscle, and fat tissue to take up glucose from the blood, storing it as glycogen in the liver and muscle....
as a central hormone for controlling diabetes (awarded only a year after its discovery) has been heatedly debated. It was shared between Frederick Banting
Frederick Banting
Sir Frederick Grant Banting, KBE, MC, FRS, FRSC was a Canadian medical scientist, doctor and Nobel laureate noted as one of the main discoverers of insulin....
and John Macleod; this infuriated Banting who regarded Macleod's involvement as minimal. Macleod was the department head at the University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
but otherwise was not directly involved in the findings. Banting thought his laboratory partner Charles Best, who had shared in the laboratory work of discovery, should have shared the prize with him as well. In fairness, he decided to give half of his prize money to Best. Macleod on his part felt the biochemist James Collip
James Collip
James Bertram Collip, Ph.D. was part of the Toronto group which isolated insulin. He served as the Chair of the Department of Biochemistry at McGill University from 1928-1941 and Dean of Medicine at the University of Western Ontario from 1947-1961, where he was a charter member of The Kappa Alpha...
, who joined the laboratory team later, deserved to be included in the award and shared his prize money with him. Moreover, Nicolae Paulescu
Nicolae Paulescu
Nicolae Paulescu was a Romanian physiologist, professor of medicine, the discoverer of insulin . The "pancreine" was a crude extract of bovine pancreas in salted water, after which some impurites were removed with hydrochloric acid and sodium hydroxide.-Early life and activities:Born in Bucharest,...
, a Romanian
Romanians
The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania....
professor of physiology at the University of Medicine and Pharmacy in Bucharest
Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy
Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy is a state-run health sciences University in Bucharest, Romania. It is the largest institution of its kind in Romania with over 2.865 employees, 1.654 teachers and over 4.800 students...
, was the first to isolate insulin, in 1916, which he called at that time, pancrein. By the time Banting also isolated insulin after reading and citing Paulescu's published work ("Research on the Role of the Pancreas in Food Assimilation",) in the paper that brought him the Nobel, Paulescu already held a patent for his discovery (April 10, 1922, patent no. 6254 (8322) "Pancreina şi procedeul fabricaţiei ei"/"Pancrein and the process of making it", from the Romanian Ministry of Industry
Ministry of Industry
Ministry of Industry may refer to:* Ministry of Industry and Energy * Ministry of Defence Industry of Azerbaijan* Ministry of Industry, Mining and Energy * Ministry of Industry...
and Trade).
In 1949, despite protests from the medical establishment, the Portuguese neurologist António Egas Moniz received the Physiology or Medicine Prize for his development of the prefrontal leucotomy, which he promoted by declaring the procedure's success just 10 days postoperative. Due largely to the publicity surrounding the award, it was prescribed without regard for modern medical ethics
Medical ethics
Medical ethics is a system of moral principles that apply values and judgments to the practice of medicine. As a scholarly discipline, medical ethics encompasses its practical application in clinical settings as well as work on its history, philosophy, theology, and sociology.-History:Historically,...
. Favorable results were reported by such publications as The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
. It is estimated that around 40,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States before the procedure's popularity faded. Joseph Kennedy, the father of John Kennedy
John F. Kennedy
John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....
, subjected his daughter, Rosemary
Rosemary Kennedy
Rose Marie "Rosemary" Kennedy was the third child and first daughter of Rose Elizabeth Kennedy née Fitzgerald and Joseph Patrick Kennedy, Sr., born little more than a year after her brother, future U.S. President John F. Kennedy...
, to the procedure which incapacitated her to the degree that she needed to be institutionalized for the rest of her life.
The 1952 prize, awarded solely to Selman Waksman
Selman Waksman
Selman Abraham Waksman was an American biochemist and microbiologist whose research into organic substances—largely into organisms that live in soil—and their decomposition promoted the discovery of Streptomycin, and several other antibiotics...
for his discovery of streptomycin
Streptomycin
Streptomycin is an antibiotic drug, the first of a class of drugs called aminoglycosides to be discovered, and was the first antibiotic remedy for tuberculosis. It is derived from the actinobacterium Streptomyces griseus. Streptomycin is a bactericidal antibiotic. Streptomycin cannot be given...
, omitted the recognition some felt due to his co-discoverer Albert Schatz
Albert Schatz (scientist)
Albert Schatz was the co-discoverer of streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy used to treat tuberculosis and a number of other diseases...
. There was litigation brought by Schatz against Waksman over the details and credit of the streptomycin discovery; Schatz was awarded a substantial settlement, and, together with Waksman, Schatz was to be officially recognized as a co-discoverer of streptomycin as far as patent rights. However, he is not recognized as a Nobel Prize winner.
The 1962 Prize awarded to James D. Watson
James D. Watson
James Dewey Watson is an American molecular biologist, geneticist, and zoologist, best known as one of the co-discoverers of the structure of DNA in 1953 with Francis Crick...
, Francis Crick
Francis Crick
Francis Harry Compton Crick OM FRS was an English molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientist, and most noted for being one of two co-discoverers of the structure of the DNA molecule in 1953, together with James D. Watson...
and Maurice Wilkins
Maurice Wilkins
Maurice Hugh Frederick Wilkins CBE FRS was a New Zealand-born English physicist and molecular biologist, and Nobel Laureate whose research contributed to the scientific understanding of phosphorescence, isotope separation, optical microscopy and X-ray diffraction, and to the development of radar...
—for their work on DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
structure and properties—did not recognize contributing work from others, such as Alec Stokes
Alec Stokes
Alexander Rawson Stokes, was a co-author of one of the three paperspublished sequentially in Nature in March 1953 announcing the presumed...
and Herbert Wilson
Herbert Wilson
Professor Herbert R. Wilson, FRS was a physicist, who was one of the team who worked on the structure of DNA at King's College London, under the direction of Sir John Randall.-College education:...
. In addition, Erwin Chargaff
Erwin Chargaff
Erwin Chargaff was an American biochemist who emigrated to the United States during the Nazi era. Through careful experimentation, Chargaff discovered two rules that helped lead to the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA...
, Oswald Avery
Oswald Avery
Oswald Theodore Avery ForMemRS was a Canadian-born American physician and medical researcher. The major part of his career was spent at the Rockefeller University Hospital in New York City...
and Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Franklin
Rosalind Elsie Franklin was a British biophysicist and X-ray crystallographer who made critical contributions to the understanding of the fine molecular structures of DNA, RNA, viruses, coal and graphite...
(whose key DNA x-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography is a method of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a crystal and causes the beam of light to spread into many specific directions. From the angles and intensities of these diffracted beams, a crystallographer can produce a...
work was the most detailed yet least acknowledged among the three) contributed directly to the ability of Watson and Crick to solve the structure of the DNA molecule—but Avery died in 1955, and Franklin in 1958 and posthumous nominations for the Nobel Prize are not permitted. However, recently unsealed files of the Nobel Prize nominations reveal that no one ever nominated Franklin for the prize when she was alive. Wilkins' only contribution was to show Rosa Franklin's key x-ray photos to Watson. As a result of Watson's misrepresentations of Franklin and her role in the discovery of the double helix in his controversial book The Double Helix
The Double Helix
The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA is an autobiographical account of the discovery of the double helix structure of DNA written by James D. Watson and published in 1968. It was and remains a controversial account...
, Franklin has come to be portrayed as a classic victim of sexism in science. Chargaff, for his part, was not quiet about his exclusion from the prize, bitterly writing to other scientists about his disillusionment regarding the field of molecular biology.
The 2008 award went to Harald zur Hausen
Harald zur Hausen
Harald zur Hausen is a German virologist and professor emeritus. He has done research on cancer of the cervix, where he discovered the role of papilloma viruses, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2008.-Biography:Zur Hausen was born in Gelsenkirchen, Germany, went to...
in recognition of his discovery of the human papillomavirus (HPV) causing cervical cancer
Cervical cancer
Cervical cancer is malignant neoplasm of the cervix uteri or cervical area. One of the most common symptoms is abnormal vaginal bleeding, but in some cases there may be no obvious symptoms until the cancer is in its advanced stages...
, and to Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi
Françoise Barré-Sinoussi is a French virologist and director of the Unité de Régulation des Infections Rétrovirales at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France. Born in Paris, France, Barré-Sinoussi performed some of the fundamental work in the identification of the human immunodeficiency virus as...
and Luc Montagnier
Luc Montagnier
Luc Antoine Montagnier is a French virologist and joint recipient with Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and Harald zur Hausen of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for his discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus...
for discovering the Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Whether Robert Gallo
Robert Gallo
Robert Charles Gallo is an American biomedical researcher. He is best known for his role in the discovery of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus , the infectious agent responsible for the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome , and he has been a major contributor to subsequent HIV research.Gallo is the...
or Luc Montagnier deserved more credit for the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS has been a matter of considerable controversy. As it was, Gallo was left out and not awarded a prize. Additionally, there was scandal when it was learned that Harald zur Hausen was being investigated for having a financial interest in vaccines for the cervical cancer HPV can cause. AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca
AstraZeneca plc is a global pharmaceutical and biologics company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's seventh-largest pharmaceutical company measured by revenues and has operations in over 100 countries...
, which has a stake in two lucrative HPV vaccines therefore can gain financially from the prize, had agreed to sponsor Nobel Media and Nobel Web. According to Times Online, two senior figures in the selection process that chose zur Hausen also had strong links with AstraZeneca.
Limits on number of awardees
The provision that restricts the maximum number of nominees to three for any one prize, introduced in 1968, has caused considerable controversy. From the 1950s onward, there has been an increasing trend to award the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to more than one person. There were 59 people who received the prize in the first 50 years of the last century, while 113 individuals received it between 1951 and 2000. This increase could be attributed to the rise of the international scientific community after World War II, resulting in more persons being responsible for the discovery, and nominated for, a particular prize. Also, current biomedical research is more often carried out by teams rather than by scientists working alone, making it unlikely that any one scientist, or even a few, is primarily responsible for a discovery; this has meant that a prize nomination that would have to include more than three contributors is automatically excluded from consideration. Also, deserving contributors may not be nominated at all because the restriction results in a cut off point of three nominees per prize, leading to controversial exclusions.Years without awards
There have been nine years in which the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was not awarded (1915–1918, 1921, 1925, 1940–1942). Most of these occurred during either World War I (1914–1918) or World War II (1939–1945). In 1939, Adolf HitlerAdolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's Third Reich forbade Gerhard Domagk
Gerhard Domagk
Gerhard Johannes Paul Domagk was a German pathologist and bacteriologist credited with the discovery of Sulfonamidochrysoidine – the first commercially available antibiotic – for which he received the 1939 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.Domagk was born in Lagow, Brandenburg, the...
from accepting his prize. He was later able to receive the diploma and medal but not the money.
External links
- All Nobel Laureates in Medicine – Index webpage on the official site of the Nobel Foundation.
- The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
- Official site of the Nobel Foundation.
- Graphics: National Medicine Nobel Prize shares 1901-2009 by citizenship at the time of the award and by country of birth. From J. SchmidhuberJürgen SchmidhuberJürgen Schmidhuber is a computer scientist and artist known for his work on machine learning, universal Artificial Intelligence , artificial neural networks, digital physics, and low-complexity art. His contributions also include generalizations of Kolmogorov complexity and the Speed Prior...
(2010), Evolution of National Nobel Prize Shares in the 20th Century at arXiv:1009.2634v1