(CNN) The 2019 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been jointly awarded to William Kaelin Jr., Sir Peter Ratcliffe and Gregg Semenza for their pioneering research into how human cells respond to changing oxygen levels. Randall Johnson, prize committee member, described the trio's work as a "textbook discovery." The 2019 prize laureates, the committee said, identified molecular machinery that regulates the activity of genes in response to varying oxygen levels. Kaelin was asleep when he received a call on Monday from Thomas Perlman, Secretary of the Nobel Committee. Sir Peter Ratcliffe sitting at his desk working on his EU Synergy Grant application, after learning he had been awarded this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Source: CNN October 07, 2019 09:39 UTC