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What was the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry awarded for?
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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The Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the 2012 Nobel Prize in Chemistry to American scientists Robert Lefkowitz, professor of molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford University, and Brian Kobilka, a biochemist at the Howard Institute, for their study of the functioning of receptors in living cells (G-protein coupled receptors).
For a long time, it remained a mystery to experts how cells can obtain information about their environment.
Scientists had some ideas about this. They believed that cells had their own specific receptors for this, but how they functioned was unclear. For example, the hormone adrenaline had a major effect on blood pressure and made the heart beat faster. But what was the basis for this phenomenon remained unsolved.
G-protein-coupled receptors are a large class of cell membrane proteins that provide communication between all cells in the body. They are activated by compounds that bind to these receptors, including hormones, pheromones, neurotransmitters, hypersensitive molecules, and a number of other factors necessary for the normal course of physiological processes. If the connection between receptors and G-proteins is disrupted, this leads to the development of many diseases.
Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka were able to discover the inner workings of how receptors and G proteins work together.
The scientists' research began in 1968. Lefkowitz labeled various hormones with a radioactive isotope of iodine, which allowed him to identify a number of receptors, including the beta-adrenergic receptor, the adrenaline receptor.
By isolating this receptor from the membrane, scientists began further research.
In 1980, Brian Kobilka joined Lefkowitz's team. He was able to isolate the gene that encoded the human beta-adrenergic receptor. After analyzing this gene, experts concluded that it was very similar to the sequence that encodes one of the light-sensitive receptors in the eye. Thus, it became clear that there was a whole family of receptors that functioned and looked the same.
In 2011, scientists managed to capture a beta-adrenergic receptor as it was activated by a hormone and transmitted a signal to the cell. The Nobel document called this image a “molecular masterpiece.”