그래, 노벨 생리의학상 발표가 났구나...
근데, 이거 되게 낯익은데 - _- 왠지 새삼스럽다는 생각이 든 건 나 뿐인가 했는데
아니나 다를까, 이미 연구된지 오랜지, 사용된지 오랜지, 다만
그간 너무 많은 사람들이 수상 대기자로 줄 서 있어서 이제사 받는거라고 하네
그렇지 - _- 난 내가 되게 엄청 열심히 많이 공부해서 노벨상도 만만한가 했어
....는 농담이고 ㅋ
하지만 이미 밝혀진지 오래라는 사실은 안농담
대략적으로 소개하자면 우리 몸에서 사용되는 수많은 전달물질들, 예를 들면 호르몬(Hormone), 신경전달물질(Neurotransmitter), 사이토카인(Cytokine) 등이 어떻게 적시에 세포의 적절한 곳에서 분비되는가? 를 연구한 것이다. 특히 발생학이나 신경생리학, 내분비학에서는 이게 사소한 것 같지만 상당히 중요한 문제가 된다. 우리 몸의 세포에서는 수 많은 분비물질을 만들지만 제각각 용도가 다르다. 그리고 이러한 전달물질들은 미량으로도 표적 세포에게 충분한 영향을 줄 수 있기 때문에 적절히 통제되지 않으면 큰 문제로 번질 수 있다. (많은 경우 Cascade 식으로 반응이 연쇄되니까) 따라서 이 소포가 세포의 어느 부분에서 터지느냐보다 언제 터지느냐를 통제할 필요가 있다 - 출처, 한화 야구팀을 좋아하는 링링님 블로그 / 주소 : 창 닫아서 몰라 -
지나가는 길에 떠왔어 관심있음 보시고, 아님 말고 ㅋ
간단한 설명은 여기에 (클릭)
Press Release
2013-10-07
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award
The 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
jointly to
James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman
and Thomas C. Südhof
for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic,
a major transport system in our cells
Summary
The 2013 Nobel Prize honours three scientists who have solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system. Each cell is a factory that produces and exports molecules. For instance, insulin is manufactured and released into the blood and chemical signals called neurotransmitters are sent from one nerve cell to another. These molecules are transported around the cell in small packages called vesicles. The three Nobel Laureates have discovered the molecular principles that govern how this cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time in the cell.
Randy Schekman discovered a set of genes that were required for vesicle traffic. James Rothman unravelled protein machinery that allows vesicles to fuse with their targets to permit transfer of cargo. Thomas Südhof revealed how signals instruct vesicles to release their cargo with precision.
Through their discoveries, Rothman, Schekman and Südhof have revealed the exquisitely precise control system for the transport and delivery of cellular cargo. Disturbances in this system have deleterious effects and contribute to conditions such as neurological diseases, diabetes, and immunological disorders.
How cargo is transported in the cell
In a large and busy port, systems are required to ensure that the correct cargo is shipped to the correct destination at the right time. The cell, with its different compartments called organelles, faces a similar problem: cells produce molecules such as hormones, neurotransmitters, cytokines and enzymes that have to be delivered to other places inside the cell, or exported out of the cell, at exactly the right moment. Timing and location are everything. Miniature bubble-like vesicles, surrounded by membranes, shuttle the cargo between organelles or fuse with the outer membrane of the cell and release their cargo to the outside. This is of major importance, as it triggers nerve activation in the case of transmitter substances, or controls metabolism in the case of hormones. How do these vesicles know where and when to deliver their cargo?
Traffic congestion reveals genetic controllers
Randy Schekman was fascinated by how the cell organizes its transport system and in the 1970s decided to study its genetic basis by using yeast as a model system. In a genetic screen, he identified yeast cells with defective transport machinery, giving rise to a situation resembling a poorly planned public transport system. Vesicles piled up in certain parts of the cell. He found that the cause of this congestion was genetic and went on to identify the mutated genes. Schekman identified three classes of genes that control different facets of the cell´s transport system, thereby providing new insights into the tightly regulated machinery that mediates vesicle transport in the cell.
Docking with precision
James Rothman was also intrigued by the nature of the cell´s transport system. When studying vesicle transport in mammalian cells in the 1980s and 1990s, Rothman discovered that a protein complex enables vesicles to dock and fuse with their target membranes. In the fusion process, proteins on the vesicles and target membranes bind to each other like the two sides of a zipper. The fact that there are many such proteins and that they bind only in specific combinations ensures that cargo is delivered to a precise location. The same principle operates inside the cell and when a vesicle binds to the cell´s outer membrane to release its contents.
It turned out that some of the genes Schekman had discovered in yeast coded for proteins corresponding to those Rothman identified in mammals, revealing an ancient evolutionary origin of the transport system. Collectively, they mapped critical components of the cell´s transport machinery.
Timing is everything
Thomas Südhof was interested in how nerve cells communicate with one another in the brain. The signalling molecules, neurotransmitters, are released from vesicles that fuse with the outer membrane of nerve cells by using the machinery discovered by Rothman and Schekman. But these vesicles are only allowed to release their contents when the nerve cell signals to its neighbours. How is this release controlled in such a precise manner? Calcium ions were known to be involved in this process and in the 1990s, Südhof searched for calcium sensitive proteins in nerve cells. He identified molecular machinery that responds to an influx of calcium ions and directs neighbour proteins rapidly to bind vesicles to the outer membrane of the nerve cell. The zipper opens up and signal substances are released. Südhof´s discovery explained how temporal precision is achieved and how vesicles´ contents can be released on command.
Vesicle transport gives insight into disease processes
The three Nobel Laureates have discovered a fundamental process in cell physiology. These discoveries have had a major impact on our understanding of how cargo is delivered with timing and precision within and outside the cell. Vesicle transport and fusion operate, with the same general principles, in organisms as different as yeast and man. The system is critical for a variety of physiological processes in which vesicle fusion must be controlled, ranging from signalling in the brain to release of hormones and immune cytokines. Defective vesicle transport occurs in a variety of diseases including a number of neurological and immunological disorders, as well as in diabetes. Without this wonderfully precise organization, the cell would lapse into chaos.