Awards & Winners

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Nobel Prize

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the fields of life sciences and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will. Nobel was personally interested in experimental physiology and wanted to establish a prize for progress through scientific discoveries in laboratories. The Nobel prize is presented to the recipient at an annual ceremony on 10 December, the anniversary of Nobel's death, along with a diploma and a certificate for the monetary award. The front side of the medal provides the same profile of Alfred Nobel as depicted on the medals for Physics, Chemistry, and Literature; its reverse side is unique to this medal. As of 2011, 102 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded to 199 men and 10 women. The first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded in 1901 to the German physiologist Emil Adolf von Behring, for his work on serum therapy and the development of a vaccine against diphtheria.
Date Established : 1901

Check all the winners of Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine presented under Nobel Prize since 1901 .


John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser, Edvard Moser

(for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain)

Nominations 2014 »

Nominee Nominated Work

James Rothman, Randy Schekman, Thomas C. Südhof

(for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells)

John Gurdon, Shinya Yamanaka

(for the discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent)

Jules A. Hoffmann, Bruce Beutler

(for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity)

Ralph M. Steinman

(for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity)

Robert G. Edwards

(for the development of in vitro fertilization)

Elizabeth Blackburn, Carol W. Greider, Jack W. Szostak

(for the discovery of how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase)

Harald zur Hausen

(for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer)

Luc Montagnier, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi

(for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus)

Oliver Smithies, Martin Evans, Mario Capecchi

(for their discoveries of principles for introducing specific gene modifications in mice by the use of embryonic stem cells)

Andrew Fire, Craig Mello

(for their discovery of RNA interference - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA)

Barry Marshall, Robin Warren

(for their discovery of the bacterium Helicobacter pylori and its role in gastritis and peptic ulcer disease)

Richard Axel, Linda B. Buck

(for their discoveries of odorant receptors and the organization of the olfactory system)

Paul Lauterbur, Peter Mansfield

(for their discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging)

Sydney Brenner, H. Robert Horvitz, John Sulston

(for their discoveries concerning genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death)

Leland H. Hartwell, Paul Nurse, Tim Hunt

(for their discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle)

Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard, Eric Kandel

(for their discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system)

Günter Blobel

(for the discovery that proteins have intrinsic signals that govern their transport and localization in the cell)

Robert F. Furchgott, Ferid Murad, Louis Ignarro

(for their discoveries concerning nitric oxide as a signalling molecule in the cardiovascular system)

Stanley B. Prusiner

(for his discovery of Prions - a new biological principle of infection)

Peter C. Doherty, Rolf M. Zinkernagel

(for their discoveries concerning the specificity of the cell mediated immune defence)

Eric F. Wieschaus, Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard

(for their discoveries concerning the genetic control of early embryonic development)

Alfred G. Gilman, Martin Rodbell

(for their discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells)

Phillip Allen Sharp, Richard J. Roberts

(for their discoveries of split genes)

Edmond H. Fischer, Edwin G. Krebs

(for their discoveries concerning reversible protein phosphorylation as a biological regulatory mechanism)

Erwin Neher, Bert Sakmann

(for their discoveries concerning the function of single ion channels in cells)

Joseph Murray, E. Donnall Thomas

(for their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease)

J. Michael Bishop, Harold E. Varmus

(for their discovery of the cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes)

James Black, George H. Hitchings, Gertrude B. Elion

(for their discoveries of important principles for drug treatment)

Susumu Tonegawa

(for his discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity)

Rita Levi-Montalcini, Stanley Cohen

(for their discoveries of growth factors)

Joseph L. Goldstein, Michael Stuart Brown

(for their discoveries concerning the regulation of cholesterol metabolism)

Niels Kaj Jerne, Georges J. F. Köhler, César Milstein

(for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies.)

Barbara McClintock

(for her discovery of mobile genetic elements.)

Sune Bergström, Bengt I. Samuelsson, John Vane

(for their discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related biologically active substances.)

David H. Hubel, Torsten Wiesel

(for their discoveries concerning information processing in the visual system.)

Roger Wolcott Sperry

(for his discoveries concerning the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres.)

Baruj Benacerraf, George Davis Snell, Jean Dausset

(for their discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions.)

Godfrey Hounsfield, Allan McLeod Cormack

(for the development of computer assisted tomography.)

Werner Arber, Daniel Nathans, Hamilton O. Smith

(for the discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics)

Roger Guillemin, Andrew Schally

(for their discoveries concerning the peptide hormone production of the brain)

Rosalyn Sussman Yalow

(for the development of radioimmunoassays of peptide hormones)

Baruch Samuel Blumberg, Daniel Carleton Gajdusek

(for their discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases)

Howard Martin Temin, Renato Dulbecco, David Baltimore

(for their discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell)

Albert Claude, George Emil Palade, Christian de Duve

(for their discoveries concerning the structural and functional organization of the cell)

Nikolaas Tinbergen, Konrad Lorenz, Karl von Frisch

(for their discoveries concerning organization and elicitation of individual and social behaviour patterns)

Gerald Edelman, Rodney Robert Porter

(for their discoveries concerning the chemical structure of antibodies)

Earl Wilbur Sutherland, Jr.

(for his discoveries concerning the mechanisms of the action of hormones)

Ulf von Euler, Bernard Katz, Julius Axelrod

(for their discoveries concerning the humoral transmittors in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release and inactivation)

Max Delbrück, Salvador Luria, Alfred Hershey

(for their discoveries concerning the replication mechanism and the genetic structure of viruses)

Robert W. Holley, Har Gobind Khorana, Marshall Warren Nirenberg

(for their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis)

Ragnar Granit, George Wald, Haldan Keffer Hartline

(for their discoveries concerning the primary physiological and chemical visual processes in the eye)

Francis Peyton Rous

(for his discovery of tumour-inducing viruses)

Charles Brenton Huggins

(for his discoveries concerning hormonal treatment of prostatic cancer)

Jacques Monod, André Michel Lwoff, François Jacob

(for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis)

Konrad Emil Bloch, Feodor Felix Konrad Lynen

(for their discoveries concerning the mechanism and regulation of the cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism)

Alan Lloyd Hodgkin, John Carew Eccles, Andrew Huxley

(for their discoveries concerning the ionic mechanisms involved in excitation and inhibition in the peripheral and central portions of the nerve cell membrane)

Francis Crick, James D. Watson, Maurice Wilkins

(for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic acids and its significance for information transfer in living material)

Georg von Békésy

(for his discoveries of the physical mechanism of stimulation within the cochlea)

Peter Medawar, Frank Macfarlane Burnet

(for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance)

Severo Ochoa, Arthur Kornberg

(for their discovery of the mechanisms in the biological synthesis of ribonucleic acid and deoxyribonucleic acid)

Joshua Lederberg

(for his discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of the genetic material of bacteria)

Edward Lawrie Tatum, George Wells Beadle

(for their discovery that genes act by regulating definite chemical events)

Daniel Bovet

(for his discoveries relating to synthetic compounds that inhibit the action of certain body substances, and especially their action on the vascular system and the skeletal muscles)

Dickinson W. Richards, André Frédéric Cournand, Werner Forssmann

(for their discoveries concerning heart catheterization and pathological changes in the circulatory system)

Hugo Theorell

(for his discoveries concerning the nature and mode of action of oxidation enzymes)

John Franklin Enders, Thomas Huckle Weller, Frederick Chapman Robbins

(for their discovery of the ability of poliomyelitis viruses to grow in cultures of various types of tissue)

Fritz Albert Lipmann

(for his discovery of co-enzyme A and its importance for intermediary metabolism.)

Hans Adolf Krebs

(for his discovery of the citric acid cycle.)

Selman Waksman

(for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis.)

Max Theiler

(for his discoveries concerning yellow fever and how to combat it.)

Edward Calvin Kendall, Philip Showalter Hench, Tadeus Reichstein

(for their discoveries relating to the hormones of the adrenal cortex, their structure and biological effects.)

Walter Rudolf Hess

(for his discovery of the functional organization of the interbrain as a coordinator of the activities of the internal organs)

António Egas Moniz

(for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy in certain psychoses)

Paul Hermann Müller

(for his discovery of the high efficiency of DDT as a contact poison against several arthropods)

Carl Ferdinand Cori, Gerty Cori

(for their discovery of the course of the catalytic conversion of glycogen.)

Bernardo Houssay

(for his discovery of the part played by the hormone of the anterior pituitary lobe in the metabolism of sugar.)

Hermann Joseph Muller

(for the discovery of the production of mutations by means of X-ray irradiation)

Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey, Ernst Boris Chain

(for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases.)

Joseph Erlanger, Herbert Spencer Gasser

(for their discoveries relating to the highly differentiated functions of single nerve fibres)

Henrik Dam

(for his discovery of vitamin K.)

Edward Adelbert Doisy

(for his discovery of the chemical nature of vitamin K.)

Gerhard Domagk

(for the discovery of the antibacterial effects of prontosil.)

Corneille Heymans

(for the discovery of the role played by the sinus and aortic mechanisms in the regulation of respiration)

Albert Szent-Györgyi

(for his discoveries in connection with the biological combustion processes, with special reference to vitamin C and the catalysis of fumaric acid)

Henry Hallett Dale, Otto Loewi

(for their discoveries relating to chemical transmission of nerve impulses.)

Hans Spemann

(for his discovery of the organizer effect in embryonic development)

William P. Murphy, George Whipple, George Minot

(for their discoveries concerning liver therapy in cases of anaemia.)

Thomas Hunt Morgan

(for his discoveries concerning the role played by the chromosome in heredity)

Charles Scott Sherrington, Edgar Adrian, 1st Baron Adrian

(for their discoveries regarding the functions of neurons.)

Otto Heinrich Warburg

(for his discovery of the nature and mode of action of the respiratory enzyme)

Karl Landsteiner

(for his discovery of human blood groups.)

Christiaan Eijkman

(for his discovery of the antineuritic vitamin)

Frederick Gowland Hopkins

(for his discovery of the growth-stimulating vitamins)

Charles Nicolle

(for his work on typhus.)

Julius Wagner-Jauregg

(for his discovery of the therapeutic value of malaria inoculation in the treatment of dementia paralytica)

Johannes Fibiger

(for his discovery of the Spiroptera carcinoma)

Willem Einthoven

("for his discovery of the mechanism of the electrocardiogram.")

Frederick Banting, John James Richard Macleod

(for the discovery of insulin)

Archibald Hill

(for his discovery relating to the production of heat in the muscle.)

Otto Fritz Meyerhof

(for his discovery of the fixed relationship between the consumption of oxygen and the metabolism of lactic acid in the muscle.)

August Krogh

(for his discovery of the capillary motor regulating mechanism)

Jules Bordet

(for his discoveries relating to immunity.)

Róbert Bárány

(for his work on the physiology and pathology of the vestibular apparatus.)

Charles Richet

(in recognition of his work on anaphylaxis)

Alexis Carrel

(in recognition of his work on vascular suture and the transplantation of blood vessels and organs.)

Nominations 1912 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Allvar Gullstrand

(for his work on the dioptrics of the eye)

Nominations 1911 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Albrecht Kossel

(in recognition of the contributions to our knowledge of cell chemistry made through his work on proteins, including the nucleic substances)

Emil Theodor Kocher

(for his work on the physiology, pathology and surgery of the thyroid gland.)

Nominations 1909 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, Paul Ehrlich

(in recognition of their work on immunity)

Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran

(in recognition of his work on the role played by protozoa in causing diseases.)

Camillo Golgi, Santiago Ramón y Cajal

(in recognition of their work on the structure of the nervous system.)

Nominations 1906 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Robert Koch

(for his investigations and discoveries in relation to tuberculosis)

Ivan Pavlov

(in recognition of his work on the physiology of digestion, through which knowledge on vital aspects of the subject has been transformed and enlarged)

Niels Ryberg Finsen

(in recognition of his contribution to the treatment of diseases, especially lupus vulgaris, with concentrated light radiation, whereby he has opened a new avenue for medical science.)

Nominations 1903 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Ronald Ross

(for his work on malaria, by which he has shown how it enters the organism and thereby has laid the foundation for successful research on this disease and methods of combating it)

Nominations 1902 »

Nominee Nominated Work

Emil Adolf von Behring

(for his work on serum therapy, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths)