


The molecules are moved around the cell in small packages called vesicles, and each scientist discovered different facets that are needed to ensure that the right cargo is shipped to the correct destination at precisely the right time.


The tiny vesicles, which have a covering known as membranes, shuttle the cargo between different compartments or fuse with the membrane. The transport system activates nerves. It also controls the release of hormones.

Disturbances in this exquisitely precise control system for transporting and delivering cellular cargo cause serious damage that, in turn, can contribute to conditions like neurological diseases, diabetes, and immunological disorders.

Scheckman, 65, who was born in St. Paul, Minn., used yeast cells as a model system when he began his research in the 1970s. He found that vesicles piled up in parts of the cell and that the cause was genetic. He went on to identify three classes of genes that control different facets of the cell’s transport system.


Collectively, they mapped critical components of the cell’s transport machinery.


Südhof helped transform what had been a rough outline into a number of molecular activities to provide insights into the elaborate mechanisms at the crux of neurological activities, from the simplest to the most sophisticated. He did so by systematically identifying, purifying and analyzing proteins that can rapidly release chemicals that underlie the brain’s activities. The transmission process can take less than a thousandth of a second.

Sheckman told the Associated Press the prize was a wonderful acknowledgment of the work he and his students had done and said he knew it would change his life.