Südhof, Thomas Christian (1955–…), a German-born American biologist , won the 2013 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine . He shared the prize with the American biologists James E. Rothman and Randy W. Schekman. The scientists won for their discoveries on the transport of substances within and between living cells .
Südhof investigated networks of tiny cavities within cells called vesicles. The vesicles transport materials within and between cells of the body. Südhof discovered how signals from nerve cells instruct vesicles to release the substances they carry. Such signaling enables the many complex reactions that take place in cells to occur in a precise, coordinated manner.
Südhof was born on Dec. 22, 1955, in Göttingen, Germany. He obtained his medical degree from the University of Göttingen in 1982. Beginning in 1983, he conducted research at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. Since 2008, he has been professor in the department of molecular and cellular physiology at Stanford University in California.
