2 Americans Win Nobel Prize for Medicine
Two Americans won the Nobel Prize in medicine today for discoveries - primarily in the 1960s and 1970s - of a key molecular mechanism that helps cells respond to signals coming from within the body and from the outside world.</br></br>Cell biologists know the process as "G protein" signal transduction. Its job is like that of an old-time telegraph operator who waits for messages to arrive and then passes them on to their intended recipient.</br></br>Inside the body, the mechanism enables cells to communicate by releasing hormones that act on other cells to trigger them into action; this helps the cells of tissues to work together and in coordination with other parts of the body. Also, the mechanism operates in the nerve endings of the eyes, nose and mouth so that these specialized cells can respond to signals from the outside world that give rise to images, smells and flavors.</br></br>Sharing the $954,000 award are Alfred G. Gilman, 53, a pharmacologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, and Martin Rodbell, 68, a biochemist who retired last summer from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle Park, N.C.</br></br>"It's quite a rush," Gilman said about learning of his prize in a phone call yesterday morning from the Karolinska Institute, a biomedical research center in Stockholm, Sweden, that makes the award.