NIH grantees win 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

What

The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to National Institutes of Health grantees Gregg L. Semenza, M.D., Ph.D., of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and William G. Kaelin Jr., M.D., of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, who share the prize with Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, M.D., of the University of Oxford, England, and Francis Crick Institute, London, for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said, “The seminal discoveries by this year’s Nobel Laureates revealed the mechanism for one of life’s most essential adaptive processes. They established the basis for our understanding of how oxygen levels affect cellular metabolism and physiological function. Their discoveries have also paved the way for promising new strategies to fight anemia, cancer and many other diseases.”

Dr. Kaelin has received continuous funding since 1990, totaling more than $30 million from NIH’s National Cancer Institute.

Dr. Semenza has received funding from NIH since 1988, totaling more than $20.3 million, primarily from NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

For more on their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability, visit the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences site: https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2019/press-release/?related=1 .

When

Monday, October 7, 2019

Who

Francis S. Collins, M.D., Ph.D., Director, National Institutes of Health
Douglas R. Lowy, M.D., Acting Director, National Cancer Institute
Gary H. Gibbons, M.D., Director of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
Griffin P. Rodgers, M.D., M.A.C.P., Director, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases