October 9, 2000 - Stockholm -- The Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute decided to award the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the year 2000 jointly to Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard and Eric Kandel for their discoveries concerning a communication process known as "signal transduction" in the nervous system. Dr. Carlsson is from Gothenburg, Sweden while Drs. Greengard and Kandel work in New York City.
The awarding of the Nobel Prize to Drs. Carlsson, Greengard and Kandel underlines the importance today of molecular and cell biology in learning how the brain works. Their research is directly relevant to neurologic disorders such as Parkinson disease and schizophrenia as well as the basic brain phenomenon of memory.
Signals between cells in the brain
In the human brain there are more than hundred billion nerve cells. They are connected to each other through an infinitely complex network of nerve processes. The message from one nerve cell to another is transmitted through different chemical transmitters. The signal transduction takes place in special points of contact, called synapses. A nerve cell can have thousands of such contacts with other nerve cells.
The three Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine have made pioneering discoveries concerning one type of signal transduction between nerve cells, referred to as slow synaptic transmission. These discoveries have been crucial for an understanding of the normal function of the brain and how disturbances in this signal transduction can give rise to neurological and psychiatric diseases. These findings have resulted in the development of new drugs.
Arvid Carlsson, Department of Pharmacology, University of Gothenburg is rewarded for his discovery that dopamine is a transmitter in the brain and that it has great importance for our ability to control movements. His research has led to the realization that Parkinson's disease is caused by a lack of dopamine in certain parts of the brain and that an efficient remedy (L-dopa) for this disease could be developed. Arvid Carlsson has made a number of subsequent discoveries, which have further clarified the role of dopamine in the brain. He has thus demonstrated the mode of action of drugs used for the treatment of schizophrenia.
Paul Greengard, Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Science, Rockefeller University, New York, is rewarded for his discovery of how dopamine and a number of other transmitters exert their action in the nervous system. The transmitter first acts on a receptor on the cell surface. This will trigger a cascade of reactions that will affect certain "key proteins" that in turn regulate a variety of functions in the nerve cell. The proteins become modified as phosphate groups are added (phosphorylation) or removed (dephosphorylation), which causes a change in the shape and function of the protein. Through this mechanism the transmitters can carry their message from one nerve cell to another.
Eric Kandel, Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia University, New York, is rewarded for his discoveries of how the efficiency of synapses can be modified, and which molecular mechanisms that take part. With the nervous system of a sea slug as experimental model he has demonstrated how changes of synaptic function are central for learning and memory. Protein phosphorylation in synapses plays an important role for the generation of a form of short term memory. For the development of a long term memory a change in protein synthesis is also required, which can lead to alterations in shape and function of the synapse.
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