Molecular biologist Randy Schekman, a member of the Geisel School of Medicine Board of Overseers, won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his work on understanding how proteins are transported in human cells.
Schekman, who shared the prize with Yale University biomedical sciences professor James Rothman and Stanford University School of Medicine professor Thomas Sudhof, discovered what the Nobel Assembly summarized as "the exquisitely precise control system for the transport and delivery of cellular cargo."
By explaining these processes, the laureates revealed how various hormones and enzymes are organized and shuttled throughout the body, and identified three classes of genes that control different parts of a cell's transport system. Although Schekman, a cell and developmental biology professor at University of California, Berkeley, does not study the research's applications, his work with Rothman and Sudhof has stimulated new research in the fields of cell physiology and cell biology, which led to important applications in the biotechnology field.
Schekman's discoveries about yeast model transportation have aided biotechnology laboratories in developing protein drugs, as yeast is used to produce the hepatitis B vaccine and approximately one-third of the world's supply of human insulin.
Schekman said his research was inspired by his own readings as well as work by other scholars, specifically cell biologist and University of California, San Diego professor Seymour Jonathan Singer and 2001 Nobel Prize winner Lee Hartwell.
Schekman's research identifying and isolating enzymes of the bacterium E. Coli during his early career helped inspire his later studies involving yeast cells. After discovering that his work on cell transport systems in yeast was more applicable to human cells, he decided to pursue it further. His more recent research looks at the mechanism through which yeast cells communicate and how cells control activities, such as nutrient intake.
"[Schekman's] been in academics and research and has done many oversight boards. He brings a lot of experience," said Geisel biochemistry professor Charlie Barlowe, who trained as a postdoctoral fellow in Schekman's lab at Berkeley from 1990 to 1994. "He's a delightful, very thoughtful and creative scientist he's a witty person, a lively individual, very genuine and promotes what he feels strongly about."
Schekman said he will continue to focus on basic research, as he seeks to increase knowledge on core principles rather than discover direct applications.
He said the government and the scientific community in general, focuses too narrowly on applied research.
"The government should fund basic science," he said. "The problem is we need to justify investment in basic science."
Schekman noted that many scientific agencies fear the seemingly unsustainable nature of basic research. Schekman's lab manager Bob Lesch said, however, that any basic research has the potential to be applied.
The Nobel Assembly notified Schekman by phone at 1:30 a.m. on Monday. He is the first person from Berkeley to win the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
Schekman has served on the Geisel Board of Overseers since March and is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Md.
