Nobel Prize

Hundreds of scientists from around the world have received Nobel Prizes for their groundbreaking achievements in Physiology or Medicine; Chemistry; Physics; and Economic Sciences. To date, six scientists have received a Nobel Prize for research they conducted at NIH:

• Harvey J. Alter (Physiology or Medicine 2020), with Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice. For the discovery of the hepatitis C virus.
• Martin Rodbell (Physiology or Medicine 1994), with Alfred Gilman. For the discovery of G-proteins and the role of these proteins in signal transduction in cells.
• D. Carleton Gajdusek (Physiology or Medicine 1976), with Baruch S. Blumberg. For their discoveries concerning new mechanisms for the origin and dissemination of infectious diseases.
• Christian B. Anfinsen (Chemistry 1972), with Stanford Moore and William H. Stein. For their work on ribonuclease, especially concerning the connection between the amino acid sequence and the biologically active conformation.
• Julius Axelrod (Physiology or Medicine 1970), with Sir Bernard Katz and Ulf von Euler. For their discoveries concerning the humoral transmitters in the nerve terminals and the mechanism for their storage, release, and inactivation.
• Marshall W. Nirenberg (Physiology or Medicine 1968), with Robert W. Holley and Har Gobind Khorana. For their interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis. Click to view a video interview with Dr. Nirenberg.