Trio wins Nobel Prize for Medicine for 'fundamental' discovery
The Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to William Kaelin, Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza for a discovery on how cells respond to oxygen that could have a wide-ranging impact on treatments for anemia and cancer, among other ailments.
The researchers earned Nobel status for their identification of the HIF, or hypoxia-inducing factor, protein that controls how the body responds and adapts to oxygen levels, and a host of related discoveries. The findings have yet to produce actionable therapies, but HIF has been shown to impact tumor production — helping cancer cells compensate for an oxygen-low environment — and red blood cells.
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