From the 1980s recombinant human erythropoietin became available for the treatment of renal anaemia. Peter Ratcliffe, a young nephrologist working in Oxford, began investigating the molecular basis in the kidney for oxygen sensing, the stimulus to erythropoietin production,
Over the next 30 years his work led to an understanding that oxygen sensing was not restricted to highly specialised cells in the kidney, but rather was a ubiquitous mechanism in mammalian cells, with much wider biological implications than just the control of erythropoietin production, and therapeutic potential well beyond treatment of renal anaemia.
For this work, Professor Sir Peter Ratcliffe FRS was awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine (shared with American scientists William G Kaelin, Jr and Gregg Semenza)
Hear Peter Ratcliffe’s summary of his work given in his lecture given at the Nobel Prize ceremony Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe – Nobel Lecture – NobelPrize.org
Last Updated on February 5, 2025 by John Feehally