Randy Schekman

Schekman, raised in a Jewish family in Minnesota and California, worked at Berkeley to uncover how cells organize their internal delivery system. Using baker's yeast, he isolated mutant cells in which transport broke down and thereby identified the genes that govern how tiny membrane vesicles carry molecules to the right place at the right time. This genetic dissection of vesicle traffic — vital for secreting hormones like insulin — earned him a share of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.