It was his dream the gene research will someday result in treatments for diseases for which there are no known cures, he said.
"This is a great honor, a great honor, not only for me, but for all of those with whom I've worked over the years," Horvitz said. Horvitz spoke by speakerphone to reporters at MIT from the French Alps, where he attended the weekend wedding of a family friend.
"I cannot imagine happier circumstances," he said of the two people with whom he is sharing the prize.
The Nobel Assembly in Stockholm announced Monday that Horvitz, 55, shared this year's prize with Sydney Brenner and John E. Sulston from the United Kingdom.
Brenner, 75, is a professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, Calif., and Sulston, 60, works at the Sanger Center at Cambridge University.
"I was very surprised today," Horvitz said. "I got a message, 'Stockholm is calling.' I am delighted. I am incredibly honored."
MIT President Charles Vest said while introducing Horvitz to reporters, "This is a great day for science, and also a great day for the future of human health."
Vest told Horvitz he wished he were in Cambridge to join in a champagne celebration.
"Local champagne would have been great fun," Horvitz said, adding, however, that celebrating with champagne before lunch in France was "most enjoyable."
The Nobel committee cited the three scientists for their work in the "genetic regulation of organ development and programmed cell death," research considered important in understanding how viruses and bacteria infect cells.
Programmed cell death, in which healthy, normal cells kill themselves, is a necessary part of shaping developing tissues and organs and refining the central nervous system, according to an MIT press release.
Researchers hope that by fully understanding the mechanism behind programmed cell death, they may be able to develop treatments for cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
Vest said the latest Nobel Prize "should remind all of us of the extreme importance of basic research that will ... ultimately create knowledge that will be converted to things that will improve the quality of the future of human health."
Horvitz said that while he didn't think there were any treatments being used today stemming from the gene research, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies "are using the scientific knowledge that derives from these discoveries" to target cancer, AIDS, Alzheimer's disease and ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease, and others.
"So it's still early stage," Horvitz said, "but I think those of us who are involved are very hopeful, and on a personal level I would find nothing more gratifying than to learn that one or more of my discoveries led specifically to pharmaceutical treatments or cures for human disease. That's the dream."
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