The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is one of the most respected awards in the world. It is given every year to scientists and researchers whose work has brought major improvements in understanding the human body, diseases, and healthcare. Since its beginning in 1901, this prize has celebrated discoveries that have changed the world — from the discovery of insulin to the creation of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19.
This award recognizes those who make remarkable contributions to medical science. It is not just about treating diseases, but also about exploring the hidden mechanisms of life itself. The Nobel Prize in Medicine honors scientists whose ideas have saved lives, inspired research, and expanded our knowledge of how the human body functions.
Over more than a century, this prize has highlighted several groundbreaking discoveries that shaped modern medicine. From the early understanding of infectious diseases to today’s cutting-edge genetic research, each Nobel-winning achievement represents a step forward in humanity’s fight against illness.
Let’s take a look at complete list of notable Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winners from 1901 to 2025:
| Year | Name | Discovery/ Contributions |
| 1901 | Emil von Behring | Work on serum therapy against diphtheria |
| 1902 | Ronald Ross | Work on malaria transmission |
| 1903 | Niels Ryberg Finsen | Work on light therapy for lupus |
| 1904 | Ivan Pavlov | Work on physiology of digestion 1903 |
| 1905 | Robert Koch | Work on tuberculosis |
| 1906 | Camillo Golgi, Santiago Ramón y Cajal | Work on nervous system structure |
| 1907 | Alphonse Laveran | Work on protozoa in diseases |
| 1908 | Ilya Mechnikov, Paul Ehrlich | Work on immunity |
| 1909 | Theodor Kocher | Work on thyroid gland |
| 1910 | Albrecht Kossel | Contributions to cell chemistry and nucleic acids |
| 1911 | Allvar Gullstrand | Work on dioptrics of the eye |
| 1912 | Alexis Carrel | Work on vascular suturing and organ transplantation |
| 1913 | Charles Richet | Work on anaphylaxis |
| 1914 | Robert Bárány | Work on vestibular apparatus |
| 1919 | Jules Bordet | Discoveries relating to immunity |
| 1920 | August Krogh | Discovery of capillary motor mechanism |
| 1922 | Archibald V. Hill, Otto Meyerhof | Discoveries on muscle metabolism |
| 1923 | Frederick G. Banting, John Macleod | Discovery of insulin |
| 1924 | Willem Einthoven | Discovery of electrocardiogram (ECG) |
| 1926 | Johannes Fibiger | Discovery of Spiroptera carcinoma |
| 1927 | Julius Wagner-Jauregg | Discovery of malaria therapy for dementia paralytica |
| 1928 | Charles Nicolle | Work on typhus |
| 1929 | Christiaan Eijkman, Sir Frederick Hopkins | Discoveries on vitamins |
| 1930 | Karl Landsteiner | Discovery of human blood groups |
| 1931 | Otto Warburg | Discovery of respiratory enzyme |
| 1932 | Sir Charles Sherrington, Edgar Adrian | Discoveries on neuron function |
| 1933 | Thomas H. Morgan | Discoveries on chromosomes and heredity |
| 1934 | George H. Whipple, George R. Minot, William P. Murphy | Discoveries on liver therapy for anaemia |
| 1935 | Hans Spemann | Discovery of organizer effect in embryonic development |
| 1936 | Sir Henry Dale, Otto Loewi | Discoveries on chemical transmission of nerve impulses |
| 1937 | Albert Szent-Györgyi | Discoveries on vitamin C and cellular respiration |
| 1938 | Corneille Heymans | Discovery of respiratory regulation mechanisms |
| 1939 | Gerhard Domagk | Discovery of antibacterial effects of prontosil |
| 1943 | Henrik Dam, Edward A. Doisy | Discoveries on vitamin K |
| 1944 | Joseph Erlanger, Herbert S. Gasser | Discoveries on nerve fibre functions |
| 1945 | Sir Alexander Fleming, Ernst B. Chain, Sir Howard Florey | Discovery of penicillin |
| 1946 | Hermann J. Muller | Discovery of mutations by X-ray irradiation |
| 1947 | Carl Cori, Gerty Cori, Bernardo Houssay | Discoveries on glycogen conversion and pituitary hormones |
| 1948 | Paul Müller | Discovery of DDT as a contact poison |
| 1949 | Walter Hess, Egas Moniz | Discoveries on brain function and leucotomy therapy |
| 1950 | Edward C. Kendall, Tadeus Reichstein, Philip S. Hench | Discoveries on adrenal cortex hormones |
| 1951 | Max Theiler | Discoveries on yellow fever |
| 1952 | Selman A. Waksman | Discovery of streptomycin against tuberculosis |
| 1953 | Hans Krebs, Fritz Lipmann | Discoveries on citric acid cycle and co-enzyme A |
| 1954 | John F. Enders, Thomas H. Weller, Frederick C. Robbins | Discovery of poliomyelitis virus cultivation |
| 1955 | Hugo Theorell | Discoveries on oxidation enzymes |
| 1956 | André F. Cournand, Werner Forssmann, Dickinson W. Richards | Discoveries on heart catheterization |
| 1957 | Daniel Bovet | Discoveries on synthetic inhibitors affecting body substances |
| 1958 | George Beadle, Edward Tatum, Joshua Lederberg | Discoveries on gene action and bacterial recombination |
| 1959 | Severo Ochoa, Arthur Kornberg | Discovery of biological synthesis of RNA and DNA |
| 1960 | Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, Peter Medawar | Discovery of acquired immunological tolerance |
| 1961 | Georg von Békésy | Discoveries on cochlear stimulation mechanism |
| 1962 | Francis Crick, James Watson, Maurice Wilkins | Discovery of DNA’s molecular structure |
| 1963 | Sir John Eccles, Alan Hodgkin, Andrew Huxley | Discoveries on nerve cell excitation and inhibition |
| 1964 | Konrad Bloch, Feodor Lynen | Discoveries on cholesterol and fatty acid metabolism |
| 1965 | François Jacob, André Lwoff, Jacques Monod | Discoveries on genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis |
| 1966 | Peyton Rous, Charles B. Huggins | Discoveries on tumour viruses and hormonal cancer treatment |
| 1967 | Ragnar Granit, Keffer Hartline, George Wald | Discoveries on visual processes in the eye |
| 1968 | Robert W. Holley, H. Gobind Khorana, Marshall W. Nirenberg | Interpretation of the genetic code |
| 1969 | Max Delbrück, Alfred D. Hershey, Salvador E. Luria | Discoveries on genetic structure of viruses |
| 1970 | Sir Bernard Katz, Ulf von Euler, Julius Axelrod | Discoveries on neurotransmitters |
| 1971 | Earl W. Sutherland Jr. | Discoveries on mechanisms of hormone action |
| 1972 | Gerald M. Edelman, Rodney R. Porter | Discoveries on chemical structure of antibodies |
| 1973 | Karl von Frisch, Konrad Lorenz, Nikolaas Tinbergen | Discoveries on animal and social behaviour |
| 1974 | Albert Claude, Christian de Duve, George E. Palade | Discoveries on cell structure and organization |
| 1975 | David Baltimore, Renato Dulbecco, Howard M. Temin | Discoveries on tumour viruses and genetics |
| 1976 | Baruch S. Blumberg, D. Carleton Gajdusek | Discoveries on infectious disease mechanisms |
| 1977 | Roger Guillemin, Andrew V. Schally, Rosalyn Yalow | Discoveries on peptide hormones and radioimmunoassay |
| 1978 | Werner Arber, Daniel Nathans, Hamilton O. Smith | Discovery of restriction enzymes |
| 1979 | Allan M. Cormack, Godfrey N. Hounsfield | Development of computer-assisted tomography (CT scan) |
| 1980 | Baruj Benacerraf, Jean Dausset, George D. Snell | Discoveries on cell surface structures regulating immunity |
| 1981 | Roger W. Sperry, David H. Hubel, Torsten N. Wiesel | Discoveries concerning brain hemispheres and visual processing |
| 1982 | Sune K. Bergström, Bengt I. Samuelsson, John R. Vane | Discoveries concerning prostaglandins |
| 1983 | Barbara McClintock | Discovery of mobile genetic elements |
| 1984 | Niels K. Jerne, Georges J.F. Köhler, César Milstein | Discovery of monoclonal antibodies and immune system specificity |
| 1985 | Michael S. Brown, Joseph L. Goldstein | Discoveries concerning cholesterol metabolism |
| 1986 | Stanley Cohen, Rita Levi-Montalcini | Discoveries of growth factors |
| 1987 | Susumu Tonegawa | Discovery of genetic principle for antibody diversity |
| 1988 | Sir James W. Black, Gertrude B. Elion, George H. Hitchings | Discoveries of principles for drug treatment |
| 1989 | J. Michael Bishop, Harold E. Varmus | Discovery of cellular origin of retroviral oncogenes |
| 1990 | Joseph E. Murray, E. Donnall Thomas | Discoveries on organ and cell transplantation |
| 1991 | Erwin Neher, Bert Sakmann | Discoveries on single ion channels in cells |
| 1992 | Edmond H. Fischer, Edwin G. Krebs | Discovery of reversible protein phosphorylation |
| 1993 | Richard J. Roberts, Phillip A. Sharp | Discovery of split genes |
| 1994 | Alfred G. Gilman, Martin Rodbell | Discovery of G-proteins and cellular signal transduction |
| 1995 | Edward B. Lewis, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard, Eric F. Wieschaus | Discoveries on genetic control of early embryonic development |
| 1996 | Peter C. Doherty, Rolf M. Zinkernagel | Discoveries on cell-mediated immune defense specificity |
| 1997 | Stanley B. Prusiner | Discovery of Prions as infectious agents |
| 1998 | Robert F. Furchgott, Louis J. Ignarro, Ferid Murad | Discoveries of nitric oxide as a signalling molecule |
| 1999 | Günter Blobel | Discovery that proteins have intrinsic signals guiding transport in cells |
| 2000 | Arvid Carlsson, Paul Greengard, Eric Kandel | Discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system |
| 2001 | Leland Hartwell, Tim Hunt, Sir Paul Nurse | Discoveries of key regulators of the cell cycle |
| 2002 | Sydney Brenner, H. Robert Horvitz, John E. Sulston | Discoveries on genetic regulation of organ development and cell death |
| 2003 | Paul C. Lauterbur, Sir Peter Mansfield | Discoveries concerning magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) |
| 2004 | Richard Axel, Linda B. Buck | Discoveries of odorant receptors and olfactory system |
| 2005 | Barry J. Marshall, J. Robin Warren | Discovery of Helicobacter pylori and its role in ulcers |
| 2006 | Andrew Z. Fire, Craig C. Mello | Discovery of RNA interference |
| 2007 | Mario R. Capecchi, Sir Martin J. Evans, Oliver Smithies | Discoveries on gene modification in mice using embryonic stem cells |
| 2008 | Harald zur Hausen, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Luc Montagnier | Discoveries of HPV and HIV viruses |
| 2009 | Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider, Jack W. Szostak | Discovery of telomeres and telomerase |
| 2010 | Robert G. Edwards | Development of in vitro fertilization |
| 2011 | Bruce A. Beutler, Jules A. Hoffmann, Ralph M. Steinman | Discoveries concerning innate and adaptive immunity |
| 2012 | Sir John B. Gurdon, Shinya Yamanaka | Discovery that mature cells can be reprogrammed to become pluripotent |
| 2013 | James E. Rothman, Randy W. Schekman, Thomas C. Südhof | Discoveries of machinery regulating vesicle traffic |
| 2014 | John O’Keefe, May-Britt Moser, Edvard I. Moser | Discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain |
| 2015 | William C. Campbell, Satoshi Ōmura, Tu Youyou | Discoveries of novel therapies against roundworm and malaria |
| 2016 | Yoshinori Ohsumi | Discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy |
| 2017 | Jeffrey C. Hall, Michael Rosbash, Michael W. Young | Discoveries of molecular mechanisms controlling circadian rhythm |
| 2018 | James P. Allison, Tasuku Honjo | Discovery of cancer therapy by inhibition of negative immune regulation |
| 2019 | William G. Kaelin Jr, Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, Gregg L. Semenza | Discoveries of how cells sense and adapt to oxygen availability |
| 2020 | Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton, Charles M. Rice | Discovery of the Hepatitis C virus |
| 2021 | David Julius, Ardem Patapoutian | Discoveries of receptors for temperature and touch |
| 2022 | Svante Pääbo | Discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution |
| 2023 | Katalin Karikó, Drew Weissman | Discoveries on nucleoside base modifications enabling mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 |
| 2024 | Victor Ambros, Gary Ruvkun | Discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation |
| 2025 | Mary E. Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Shimon Sakaguchi | For the discoveries concerning peripheral immune tolerance |
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