Nobel Prize winner thought announcement was practical joke

One of the biologists whose work on cell systems won him the Nobel prize for Medicine thought he was the victim of a practical joke when first hearing the news.

German-born Professor Thomas Sὔdhof, aged 57, said: “I thought at first it was a joke. I have lots of friends who might play these kinds of tricks.”

Sὔdhof along with Randy Schekman, 64, and James Rothman, 62, won a share of the 8m Swedish Kroner prize (£776,000) for their work into the internal ‘cargo delivery’ in cells.

The scientists worked independently at separate institutions on how ‘vesicles’, bubbles of fat, operate in sending chemicals through the body.

There is some implication that defects in this system could result in diabetes and some brain disorders.

The Nobel prize committee said the findings: "Had a major impact on our understanding of how cargo is delivered with timing and precision within and outside the cell.

"Without this wonderfully precise organisation, the cell would lapse into chaos."