More on Nobel Prize

[Charlotte Mancuso <serenityplus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

               American Scientist 'Thrilled' by Nobel Prize

               Updated 9:52 AM ET October 9, 2000

               NEW YORK (Reuters) - American scientist Paul Greengard
said he was ``thrilled'' to
               win the Nobel Prize for Medicine on Monday and receive
recognition for 40 years of
               research into the mysteries of how nerve cells
communicate.

               Greengard of New York's Rockefeller University, Eric
Kandel of New York's Columbia
               University and Swede Arvid Carlsson, formerly of the
University of Gothenburg,
               shared the prize for studies on how messages move around
the nervous system.

               ``I was extremely thrilled,'' Greengard said in a
telephone interview with CNN.
               Asked whether he was expecting to win the prize,
Greengard, 74, said: ``No I
               wasn't.''

               Messages between nerve cells in the brain, which number
more than 100 billion, are
               carried by chemical transmitters, with messages
transmitted at special points of
               contact between the cells called synapses. One of these
chemical messengers is a
               hormone-like substance called dopamine.

               Explaining the possible consequences of his work,
Greengard told CNN that
               ``abnormalities in dopamine are implicated in a number of
major neurological and
               psychiatric diseases including schizophrenia, Parkinson's
disease, attention deficit
               hyperactivity disorder and drug abuse.

               ``And so, having worked out a lot of these chemical steps
used by the neurocells in
               the brain provides a lot of new targets for
pharmaceutical companies to try to
               develop new drugs for the treatment of these major
diseases,'' he said.

               The Rockefeller University scientist was also asked how
he would spend his $1
               million prize money. ``I haven't really had time to think
about that yet,'' he said.

               Greengard has scheduled a news conference for 10:30 a.m.
EDT (1430 GMT).
               Kandel was not available for comment until 1:30 p.m. EDT
(1730 GMT) because he
               was attending temple on the Jewish religious holiday of
Yom Kippur, a spokesman
               for Columbia University said.

               Kandel, 70, joined the Columbia University College of
Physicians and Surgeons in
               1974 as the founding director of the Center for
Neurobiology and Behavior. His
               research has focused on synaptic plasticity in the
central nervous system and on
               the molecular basis of higher cognitive functions.






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