The global scientific community is preparing for the main event of the year. On October 5, at 13:30 Tbilisi time, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm will announce the 2026 laureate in Physiology or Medicine. Before this year’s winners are revealed, it is worth looking back at the origins of this historic award.
“[The income] from my estate shall be divided into five equal parts… one part shall be awarded to the person who shall have made the most important discovery within the domain of physiology or medicine.” These words come from Alfred Nobel’s historic will, in which medicine was designated as the third prize category.
Many people wonder why the inventor of dynamite became interested in human health and biology. In 1890, Nobel met Swedish physiologist Jöns Johansson. Johansson became so close to him that he even worked for a time at Nobel’s private laboratory in France. According to researchers, it was this collaboration and Nobel’s direct exposure to medicine that led him to decide to dedicate part of his vast fortune to recognizing achievements in medicine.
The first tangible result of this decision came in 1901, when the first-ever Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to German scientist Emil von Behring. He developed a serum treatment against diphtheria, saving the lives of thousands of children. It was precisely the kind of discovery that offered enormous practical benefits to humanity — just as the author of the will had envisioned.
More than a century has passed since then. The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has honored numerous revolutionary achievements with the world’s highest scientific distinction — from the discovery of penicillin and the elucidation of the structure of DNA to the development of computed tomography and advances in immunotherapy. Now, the scientific community is eagerly awaiting to see who will continue this remarkable tradition and whose name will go down in history on October 5.
