NOBEL PRIZE IN MEDICINE
October 9, 2000

Arvid Carlsson, Swedish, 77, University of Gothenburg Paul Greengard, American, 74, Rockefeller University, New York Eric Kandel, Austrian-born American, 70, Columbia University, New York Ray Suarez talks with Paul Greengard and Dr. Steve Hyman, director of the National Institute of Mental Health.

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Sweden's Arvid Carlsson and Americans Paul Greengard and Eric Kandel won the 2000 Nobel Prize for medicine for their research on how messages are transmitted between brain cells. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet said the three had made "pioneering discoveries" in signal transduction between nerve cells in the brain. Their work has helped in understanding how the brain functions and the causes behind neurological and psychiatric diseases. Arvid Carlsson's research since the 1950s showed that dopamine is an important transmitter between brain cells and is instrumental in the ability to control physical movement. Carlsson's work led to the development of L-dopa, a treatment for Parkinson's Disease. Paul Greengard was honored for his studies on how dopamine and other chemical transmitters act on brain cells. His work on transmitters' mechanism of action and slow synaptic transmission has increased the understanding of how some drugs work. Eric Kandel's experiments with slugs showed how learning and memory are affected by changes at synapses, where signal transduction occurs. His research could lead to new treatments for Alzheimer's.