Their discoveries pave the way for promising new strategies to fight anemia, cancer and several other diseases.
The 2019 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was jointly awarded to two Americans and a British scientist on Monday for their discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability.
Drs. William G Kaelin Jr of Harvard University, Gregg L Semenza of Johns Hopkins University and Peter J Ratcliffe at the Francis Crick Institute in Britain and Oxford University will share equally the 9 million kronor ($ 918,000) cash award, the Karolinska Institute said.
The three scientists identified molecular machinery that regulates the activity of genes in response to varying levels of oxygen, according to a release by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute.
'The seminal discoveries by this year's Nobel Laureates revealed the mechanism for one of life's most essential adaptive processes.
'They established the basis for our understanding of how oxygen levels affect cellular metabolism and physiological function,' the Nobel Assembly said.
Their work has 'greatly expanded our knowledge of how physiological response makes life possible', the committee said, explaining that the scientists identified the biological machinery that regulates how genes respond to varying levels of oxygen.
Their discoveries pave the way for promising new strategies to fight anemia, cancer and several other diseases.
It is the 110th prize in the category that has been awarded since 1901.
The Nobel Prize for Medicine announcement kicked off Nobel week.
The Nobel Physics prize is handed out on Tuesday and the following day is the Chemistry prize.
This year's Literature Prizes -- one each for 2018 and 2019 -- will be awarded Thursday and the Peace Prize will be announced on Friday.
The Economics prize will be awarded on October 14.
Nobel Prize is a set of annual international awards bestowed for outstanding work in fields of physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature, economics, and the promotion of peace.
With agency inputs
Cancer researchers win Nobel Prize in medicine
IN PHOTOS: Women who won the Nobel Literature Prize
Nobel Prize went to an idea whose time has not come
Flashback: The Indians who have won the Nobel
Why I steer clear of Nobel Laureates