Three doctors have been awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for medicine for finding how cells adapt to fluctuating oxygen levels, paving the way for new strategies to fight diseases such as anaemia and cancer.

The trio were named as:

“They were extremely happy”, to share the $1.35 million prize, Thomas Perlmann, a member of the Nobel Assembly, told reporters on Monday.

“I was in a daze. I was kind of half awake. It was kind of… a kind of… I was not able to say much of anything because I was so shocked and surprised,” said Professor Semenza.