James E. RothmanBorn 3 Nov 1950.American cell biologist who shared (with Randy W. Schekman and Thomas C. Südhof) the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic, a major transport system in our cells.” Vesicles are tiny, sac-like structures that serve as transportation mechanisms within cells. While this fact was long known, the precise mechanism had remained unexplained as to how they fused with organelles or the plasma membrane to ferry the cargo of substances needed by the cell to various destinations within, as well as outside the cell. The problem could be imagined like looking at a fleet of vans transporting thousands of packages around hundreds of miles of city streets and needing to explain how they efficiently find the right destination where to stop and unload which parts of the cargo.« |
