Noble Prize in Medicine jointly awarded to 3 for learning how cells use oxygen

The 2019 Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to William G Kaelin Jr, Peter J Ratcliffe and Gregg L Semenza on Monday for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.

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The three scientists identified molecular machinery that regulates the activity of genes in response to varying levels of oxygen, according to a release by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute.

"The seminal discoveries by this year's Nobel Laureates revealed the mechanism for one of life's most essential adaptive processes. They established the basis for our understanding of how oxygen levels affect cellular metabolism and physiological function," the Nobel Assembly said.

Their discoveries pave the way for promising new strategies to fight anemia, cancer and several other diseases.

The Nobel Prize for Medicine announcement kicked off Nobel week. The Nobel Physics prize is handed out on Tuesday and the following day is the chemistry prize.

This year's Literature Prizes - one each for 2018 and 2019 - will be awarded Thursday and the Peace Prize will be announced on Friday.

The economics prize will be awarded on October 14.

Noble Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed for outstanding work in fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, economics, and the promotion of peace.