Rothman, James Edward (1950-…), an American biologist , won the 2013 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine . He shared the prize with fellow American biologist Randy W. Schekman and the German-born biologist Thomas C. Südhof. The scientists won for their discoveries about how substances are transported within and between living cells .
Rothman studied how cells move substances internally through tiny cavities called vesicles. He discovered proteins that enable vesicles to deliver their contents to specific regions within the cell. This system ensures that the substances are delivered to the correct location in the cell with great precision. Such precision is necessary for proper cell function.
Rothman was born on Nov. 3, 1950, in Haverhill, Massachusetts. He studied physics at Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut, graduating in 1971. He earned his Ph.D. degree from Harvard Medical School in 1976. After conducting research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, he took a position at California’s Stanford University. In 2008, Rothman joined the faculty at Yale in the departments of cell biology and chemistry.
