- The 2013 prize honors three scientists who have solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system. Each cell is a factory that produces and exports molecules. These molecules are transported around the cell in small packages called vesicles. The three Nobel laureates have discovered the molecular principles that govern how this cargo is delivered to the right place at the right time in the cell.

- Nobel Prizes in physiology or medicine have been awarded 103 times between 1901 and 2012. In all but 38 cases, they were given to more than one recipient.

- Of the 201 individuals awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine up to 2012, only 10 are women. Of these, Barbara McClintock is the only one who has received an unshared Nobel Prize.

- To date, the youngest Nobel laureate in physiology or medicine is Frederick G. Banting, who was 32 years old when he was awarded the Medicine Prize in 1923.

- Famous Winners: Robert Koch, the German physician and bacteriologist, won in 1905 for his work on tuberculosis. Frederick Banting, the Canadian physiologist who with his assistant Charles Best discovered insulin, the principal remedy for diabetes, won the prize in 1923.

- One winner was forced to decline the prize. German dictator Adolf Hitler had forbidden three German laureates from accepting their prizes, including Gerhard Domagk, who was awarded the 1939 Nobel medicine prize. He could later receive the Diploma and Medal, but not the prize money.

Reuters