Three scientists shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the Nobel Committee at Swedish Karolinska Institute announced here on Monday.

Pictures of the 2013 winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Suedhof (L-R) are seen on a screen during a press conference at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, capital of Sweden. The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Sudhof "for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells," according to the Nobel Assembly.

"The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute has today decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2013 jointly to James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Sudhof for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells," said Goran Hansson, Secretary of the Nobel Assembly at Swedish Karolinska Institute.

"Through their discoveries, Rothman, Schekman and Sudhof have revealed the exquisitely precise control system for the transport and delivery of cellular cargo," the assembly said in a statement.

Schekman identified three classes of genes that control different facets of the cell's transport system, providing new insights into the tightly regulated machinery that mediates vesicle transport in the cell, according to the statement.

Rothman discovered in the 1990s that a protein complex enables vesicles to dock and fuse with their target membranes and his findings, together with Schekman's discovery, revealed an ancient evolutionary origin of the transport system.

Sudhof's research was based on the discovery of machinery by Schekman and Rothman, and his discovery explained how temporal precision is achieved and how vesicles' contents can be released on command.

The prizes have been awarded since 1901 and 201 people had won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine till 2012.

Source: Xinhuanet