Blog: Nobel Prize in Medicine

We close our blog for now and will be back tomorrow with the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physics at around 11 a.m. CET.

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And here another nice (and touching) reaction from May-Britt Moser, summarized in a press report:

'This is so great, this is crazy. I am just jumping, screaming,' Moser told Reuters. 'I am so proud of all the support that we have had. People have believed in us, in what we have been doing and now this is the reward.'

The scientist was discussing data with colleagues in their lab when she was called by the secretary general of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute.

'I almost did not take the call because the discussion was so interesting,' she said.

Later May-Britt Moser was shown on Norwegian TV twirling around with her hands raised, holding a glass of champagne at a party in Trondheim as her co-workers sang 'Happy Nobel to you' to the tune of 'Happy Birthday'.

Her husband did not immediately learn that he had won the Nobel Prize as he was on a plane bound to Munich, she said.

• May-Britt Moser's reaction to the good news:

'This is crazy,' an excited May-Britt Moser, 51, told The Associated Press by telephone from Trondheim. She said her 52-year-old husband didn't immediately find out about the prize because he was flying Monday morning to the Max Planck Institute in Munich, Germany, to demonstrate their research. 'This is such a great honor for all of us and all the people who have worked with us and supported us,' she said, adding they had been together for 30 years. 'We are going to continue and hopefully do even more groundbreaking work in the future.'

• John O'Keefe's reaction:

How does the brain count? Which cells play which role? John O'Keefe, May-Britt and Edvard Moser found the answers to these questions. Their findings could open up new treatment options for Alzheimer's disease.

Mosers first statement at a press conference at the Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology near Munich this afternoon: 'I am terribly grateful. It's absolutely fantastic!'

Aha! Now we know why Edvard Moser was on the plane to Munich! He's on a three-week research trip at the Max-Planck-Institute of Neurobiology in Martinsried, which is near the Bavarian capital.

A little history lesson:

• In 1971, John O'Keefe discovered certain nerve cells are activated when a rat is put in a particular place in a room. When the rat moves to a different location, other cells are activated. O'Keefe's conclusion: these special brain cells must provide some kind of a map in the rat's brain.

• May-Britt and Edvard Moser are the fifth couple to share a Nobel Prize. Among the others, the story of the Curie family is probably the best known so far. In 1903, the couple Pierre and Marie Curie received the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Their daughter Irène Joliot-Curie did it the same way. She received her prize in 1935 - together with her husband Frédéric Joliot - for their research in Chemistry.

This year's three winners of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine were selected for having discovered cells in the brain which they say form a navigation system. This 'brain-GPS' is for spatial orientation. For their experiments and investigations ​​May-Britt and Edvard Moser used rats and mice.

You can follow May-Britt Moser on Twitter:

@MayBrittMoser

The Mosers' first reaction to the announcement: 'I'm still in shock. This is so great!'

We were also excited about the first Tweet...

While one half of the prize goes to US-British scientist John O'Keefe, the other half goes to the Norwegian husband-and-wife team May-Britt Moser und Edvard Moser. All three of them are neuroscientists.

Congrats!

Here are some nice-to-know facts about the winners:

• May-Britt Moser is the 11th woman to win the medicine prize. She's 51 years old
• Edvard Moser: 52 years old
• John O'Keefe: 74 years old

Ready to go...

The session for this year's Nobel Prize announcements has just begun. Only a few minutes to go until we know who are this year's Nobel Prize winners for Physiology or Medicine.

You can follow the ceremony here:

http://www.nobelprize.org/