Sleepy Hollow Grad Wins Nobel Prize In Medicine

SLEEPY HOLLOW, NY — A Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine was awarded to a man who grew up in Tarrytown and went to Sleepy Hollow High School. Gregg L. Semenza, the C. Michael Armstrong Professor of Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, will be sharing the award with William G. Kaelin Jr. and Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe.

Semenza, 63, according to The Hub, a Johns Hopkins Hospital publication, was recognized for his discoveries on how cells respond to low oxygen levels and how it relates to treatments for a variety of illnesses.

Kaelin is affiliated with Harvard Medical School and Howard Hughes Medical Institute.

Ratcliffe is affiliated with the University of Oxford and Francis Crick Institute in London.

The three men will share the cash award of about $908,000.

In an interview in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Semenza said his interest in science began because of his freshman biology teacher in high school, Rose Nelson.

He also had Nelson as a teacher when he was a senior taking AP biology.

The award winners' work "established the basis for our understanding of how oxygen levels affect cellular metabolism and physiological function. Their discoveries have also paved the way for promising new strategies to fight anemia, cancer and many other diseases," according to the Nobel committee.

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