2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to John O'Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser. The prize was announced by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm on 6 October 2014.

The citation

The citation reads: "for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain".

The laureates

John O'Keefe was born in 1939 in New York, the United States, and is affiliated with University College, London. May-Britt Moser was born in 1963 in Fosnavåg, Norway, and is affiliated with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim. Edvard I. Moser was born in 1962 in Ålesund, Norway, and is affiliated with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim.

Why it matters

O'Keefe discovered "place cells" in the brain in 1971, and the Mosers discovered "grid cells" in 2005. Together they form an inner GPS. O'Keefe works at University College London.

The prize

The prize is worth 8 million Swedish kronor, divided between the laureates. It will be presented at a ceremony in Stockholm on 10 December, the anniversary of the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite whose will founded the prizes in 1895.