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| Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka who win 2012 Nobel prize for research on protein receptors [Photo: Wikipedia] |
Stockholm: Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka, two
American researchers won the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry Wednesday for their
contribution to bio-science as their studies shed light on how billions of cells in our body sense their environments.
Their prize was for their studies of
protein receptors that let body cells sense and respond to outside signals. Such studies are key for developing better
drugs.
Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka, both the
scientists, will share the prize of 8million Swedish kronor.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said
the 8 million crown prize went to Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka for
discovering the inner workings of G-protein-coupled receptors, gateways to
cells that react to chemical messages.
The study focuses on how cells in the body
respond to stimuli such as a rush of adrenalin. The discovery is about a
coupled receptors what called G protein, a number of proteins that reach
through cell walls.
The human body has
about 1,000 kinds of such receptors, which let it respond to a wide variety of
chemical signals, like adrenaline. Some receptors are in the nose, tongue and
eyes, and let us sense smells, tastes and vision.
Lefkowitz, 69, is an
investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor at Duke
University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina.
Kobilka, 57, is a
professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.
Notably, about half of
all medications act on these receptors, so learning about them will help
scientists to come up with better drugs.