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A Stanford Medical School professor today won the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his work on receptors that convey chemical messages across cell membranes.

Brian Kobilka, chair of molecular and cellular physiology at the medical school, isolated the gene for G-protein-coupled receptors, which snake in and out of the cell membrane and serve as one of the main methods of communication within the body.

About 1,000 human genes encode the receptors, which regulate nearly every physiological process. About 40 percent of all medications target these receptors.

Of his early-morning phone call from Sweden, Kobilka said, "I didn't believe it at first, but after I spoke with about five people -- they handed the phone around -- with really convincing Swedish accents, I started to think it was for real."

Kobilka, 57, shares the prize with his former mentor, Robert Lefkowitz, professor of medicine and of biochemistry at Duke University.

In the 1980s, the two men worked to identify one G-protein-coupled receptor family member called the beta-adrenergic receptor. Kobilka was able to isolate the gene for the receptor (no small feat at the time) to learn more about its composition.

In 2011, he and his team were the first to obtain a three-dimensional image of another receptor family member bound to its signaling molecule.

"It was so exciting to see this three-dimensional structure and finally know how these transmembrane regions interact during signaling," Kobilka said.

Kobilka credits the many people he's worked with through the years, including his wife (with whom he works), Tong Sun Kobilka, MD, a physician with Kaiser.

"I'm particularly surprised to be honored, because so many people have contributed to things that I've done," he said.

"It's been a collaborative effort with researchers from around the world. I consider that this award recognizes their work as well."

Kobilka earned an MD from Yale University in 1981. In 1984 he joined the Lefkowitz laboratory. Early in his career, Lefkowitz used radioactivity to understand the receptors' function and their shape in the cell wall.

Kobilka came to Stanford in 1989 from Duke to join the then-nascent Department of Molecular and Cellular Physiology. "It was probably the only place that offered me a job," said Kobilka, who recalls himself as a "good, but not exceptional" student.

He has two grown children, Jason and Megan, neither of whom are in science. He and his wife, Tong Sun, have been together since he was a postdoctoral student. "She's probably more excited than I am," he said.

• Watch live stream of 10 a.m. press conference

— Palo Alto Weekly staff

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