The official website of the Nobel Prize

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Six days – six prizes

“My fish and chips were just put down in front of me when someone rang and said, ‘Hello this is Stockholm speaking, you’ve won the Nobel Prize this year’. I could feel my face going white.”

Robin Warren was sitting in a pub in Perth, Australia opposite collaborator Barry Marshall when he got the Nobel Prize call – letting them know that they had both been awarded the 2005 medicine prize for their discovery of how stomach ulcers are caused by bacteria, not stress.

On 4 October one or many scientist(s) will be informed that they have been awarded the medicine prize – follow us to hear the news first!

Who did what?

How many medicine laureates can you match?

Can you match the right medicine laureate with the right discovery? Have a try!

Featured Nobel Prize laureates in physiology or medicine

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2009

Why we age

Why do we age? And why do some people age faster than others? The secret lies in our telomeres and the enzyme telomerase which was first discovered by Elizabeth Blackburn and affects the way our cells age.

Elizabeth Blackburn in her lab at the University of California, San Francisco — © Univ of California, San Francisco 2009, Photo: Elisabeth Fall/fallfoto.com

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1964

The structure of penicillin

Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin was arguably the most outstanding X-ray crystallographer of her time. She succeeded in determining the structure of penicillin and later determined the structure of vitamin B12.

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1901

Work on serum therapy

Diphtheria took thousands of lives before a cure was found. Read about the “demon” that hounded Emil von Behring, and his revolutionizing work that earned him the first medicine prize in 1901.

Nobel Prize announcements

2021 Nobel Prize Announcements

This year’s Nobel Prize announcements will take place 4-11 October. See the full schedule.

The Nobel Prize call

I think it's a shock

Surprised, overwhelmed, terrified, happy. How would you react if you suddenly heard that you had been awarded the Nobel Prize? Here, six laureates share their stories.

More about the ‘Nobel Prize call’

Explore prizes and laureates

All Nobel Prizes and laureates

Between 1901 and 2020, the Nobel Prizes and the Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel were awarded 603 times to 962 people and organizations. See the full list here.

The 2009 Nobel Laureates stand for the Swedish national anthem — The 2009 Nobel Prize laureates

© The Nobel Foundation 2009, Photo: Frida Westholm

Questions and answers

Why is there a Nobel Prize? 

Do you have questions about the Nobel Prize and our Nobel Prize laureates? Find answers to the most commonly asked questions in the FAQ.

Watch the documentary series

Five documentaries inspired by the Nobel Peace Prize

A team of female Yazidi deminers in Iraq attempting to clear their land of mines left behind by ISIS. A team of scientists on an extraordinary mission in Mozambique to help better our understanding of climate change. A man building prosthetic legs to help victims of war walk again in South Sudan … All are inspired by Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

Nobel Prize nominations

Who can nominate for a Nobel Prize?

No person can nominate herself/himself for a Nobel Prize. But who can? And how are these persons chosen?

Jane Addams nomination for Carl von Ossietzky

Who selects the laureates?

In his last will and testament, Alfred Nobel specifically designated the institutions responsible for the prizes he wished to be established.

Explore the nomination archive

Search among the names of the nominees and nominators, as well as additional information about the nominations 1901-1966.

Mahatma Gandhi – The missing laureate

Mohandas Gandhi has become the strongest symbol of non-violence in the 20th century. He was nominated several times, but was never awarded the prize. Why?

Play a game!

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1930

The Blood Typing Game

Learn more about blood groups in the blood typing game! The game helps you understand how blood groups work.

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1904

Pavlov's Dog

In this game you can train a dog to drool on command! It’s all about conditioned learning.

Nobel Prize Concert 2021

Cellist Sol Gabetta soloist at the Nobel Prize Concert

Acclaimed Argentina-born cellist Sol Gabetta will be performing at this year’s Nobel Prize Concert on 8 December.u003cbru003eu003cbru003eThe Nobel Prize Concert is an annual concert which is part of the Nobel Week official programme celebrating that year’s Nobel Prize laureates.

Sol Gabetta 2018 photo julia wesely — Cellist Sol Gabetta

© Julia Wesely

Nobel Prizes 2020

Black holes and the Milky Way’s darkest secret

The Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 was awarded with one half to Roger Penrose “for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity” and the other half jointly to Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez “for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the centre of our galaxy”.

© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

Genetic scissors: a tool for rewriting the code of life

The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020 was awarded to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer A. Doudna “for the development of a method for genome editing”.

Hepatitis – a global threat to human health

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2020 was awarded jointly to Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice “for the discovery of Hepatitis C virus”.

© The Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén

A prominent poet in American contemporary literature

The Nobel Prize in Literature 2020 was awarded to the American poet Louise Glück “for her unmistakable poetic voice that with austere beauty makes individual existence universal”.

Combatting the threat of hunger

The Nobel Peace Prize 2020 was awarded to the World Food Programme (WFP) for its efforts to combat hunger, for its contribution to bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and for acting as a driving force in efforts to prevent the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.

The quest for the perfect auction

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2020 was awarded to Paul R. Milgrom and Robert B. Wilson “for improvements to auction theory and inventions of new auction formats”.

Alfred Nobel – Established the Nobel Prize

Alfred Nobel's last will

On 27 November 1895, Alfred Nobel signed his last will in Paris, France. The Swedish dynamite millionaire, who thought that his invention would end all wars, had now realised that it was a very deadly product. Wanting to make amends, he did what no man of such wealth had done before …

The very first Nobel Prizes

On 10 December 1901 the first Nobel Prizes were awarded, in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. Read more about the first prizes.

The first Nobel Prize Award Ceremony was held in 1901 at the Royal Academy of Music, Stockholm.

Alfred Nobel – scientist and inventor

Chemist, engineer and industrialist Alfred Nobel left 31 million SEK (today about 265 million dollar) to fund the Nobel Prizes. Read more about his life and work.

Nobel destinations

Stockholm, Sweden

Nobel Prize Museum

The Nobel Prize: Ideas Changing the World (3) — The museum showcases the discoveries and creativity of the Nobel Laureates.

Photo: Åke Eson Lindman

Oslo, Norway

19 remarkable scientists and their stories

The City of The Future

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