(11 Oct 1999) English/Nat
The Nobel Prize for medicine was awarded Monday to Dr. Guenter Blobel of The Rockefeller University in New York City. Blobel who is 63 and a native of Germany, was awarded the prize for his research on proteins -- research that has shed new light on diseases such as cystic fibrosis.
Blobel arrived at work Monday morning after receiving the news he had won and was greeted by his colleagues and the media. The prize announcement said Blobel's work has helped scientists use cells in laboratories to produce drugs, and has had an \"immense impact\" on studies of the cell.
SOUNDBITE: (English)
\"Applications are for instance, that many of the recombinant proteins that are being used to treat people, erythropoetin for people who undergo kidney dialysis is a 2 (b) billion dollar drug, is engineered in E.coli with the little zip code to get out of E.coli -- so huge amount of proteins are being made using these principles -- or insulin for instance is made in yeast cells using these same principles to get the protein out of the yeast cell because you don't want to inject people with the yeast. You want to inject them only with the protein of interest. So there is a very huge industry which has been developed in part based on this idea.\"
SUPERCAPTION: Dr. Guenter Blobel, Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine
Blobel discovered that proteins carry signals that act like zip codes, helping them find their correct locations within a cell. Some hereditary diseases are caused by errors in these signals. Hyperoxaluria, which causes kidney stones at an early age and some forms of inherited high cholesterol, as well as illnesses like cystic fibrosis occur when certain proteins fail to reach their proper destinations within a cell.
SOUNDBITE (German):
(explains how proteins carry signals that act like zip codes, helping them find their proper locations within cells)
SUPERCAPTION: Dr. Guenter Blobel, Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine
At a press conference, held at the University, Blobel said he first thought the call from Stockholm telling him he had won, was a prank.
SOUNDBITE (English):
\" Really I'm very excited. When I got this phone call this morning at 5:00 from Sweden at first I thought maybe it's a crank which some of my collaborators may play on me...\"
SUPERCAPTION: Dr. Guenter Blobel, Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine
Blobel announced he will donate the prize money, $960,000 (USD), to various organizations in Europe including Friends of Dresden, a group that helps collect money for the German city.
Blobel is one of the founders of that organization. Some of the money will help pay for the restoration of Dresden's famed Frauenkirche church, which was destroyed during World War Two. The money will also help fund restoration of a Dresden synagogue.
SOUNDBITE (English):
\" And this Nobel Prize is going to go to the Frauenkirche in Dresden. I'm going to donate it to the Frauenkirche and I'm also donating part of it to the reconstruction of the synagogue in Dresden and last not least I'm donating it to reconstruction of the historic center, some historic center buildings in Fulvina, Italy.\"
SUPERCAPTION: Dr. Guenter Blobel, Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine
Blobel's wife has a house in that region of Italy and he said that they had spent many happy hours there.
Winners of the Nobel Prize in physics and chemistry are to be announced Tuesday, followed by economics Wednesday and the peace prize Friday.
Find out more about AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
Twitter: [ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
You can license this story through AP Archive: [ Ссылка ]
