The scientists who revealed the rules of cell trafficking receive the Nobel Prize

"The Nobel Prize in Medicine this year reflects the importance of basic research,” explains the head of the Microtubule Organisation Lab at IRB Barcelona Jens Lüders to Materia. The North American scientists James Rothman and Randy Schekman and the German Thomas Südhof have been awarded this recognition for solving the mystery of how the cell organises its transport system, according to the Nobel Prize organisers at the Karolinska Instutute in Sweden.

Lüders compares the discovery with an underground train network. “The awardees have discovered how each passenger enters a carriage, how the passengers are distributed, the distance travelled by each one, and the type of mechanism they use to open the door at the right stop and to get to their final destination,” he explains. The work performed by the award winners “shows how research in cell biology directly affects our understanding of diseases at the molecular level,” states Lüders.

Lüders works in a field close to that of the awardees, namely that of microtubules, which can be likened to the “motorways” that, for example, neurons use to transport neurotransmitters. One of the branches of his work is to explore the defects in these communication pathways. Such defects are associated with most neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer disease.

Read the news online in Materia:
http://esmateria.com/2013/10/07/los-descubridores-de-las-normas-de-trafico-celular-ganan-el-nobel-de-medicina/
Read the news in Materia (PDF)