( CNN ) -- Two Americans and a German shared the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine this year . Americans James E. Rothman and Randy W. Schekman , and German Thomas C. Sudhof were awarded the prize Monday for discoveries of how the body 's cells decide when and where to deliver the molecules they produce . The Nobel Assembly said the three `` have solved the mystery of how the cell organizes its transport system . '' Their work focuses on tiny bubbles inside cells called vesicles , which move hormones and other molecules within cells and sometimes outside them , such as when insulin is released into the bloodstream . Disruptions of this delivery system contribute to diabetes , neurological diseases and immunological disorders . Rothman , a professor at Yale University , detailed how protein machinery allows vesicles in cells to fuse with their targets to permit the transfer of molecular cargo . Schekman , a professor at the University of California , Berkeley , was honored for discovering a set of genes required for the `` vesicle traffic . '' Sudhof , a professor at Stanford University , showed how vesicles are instructed precisely when to release molecules . Schekman and Sudhof also are investigators at Howard Hughes Medical Institute . Monday 's ceremony at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm , Sweden , will be followed by the announcement of the physics prize Tuesday , the chemistry prize Wednesday and the economics prize on October 14 . The Nobel Peace Prize will be awarded in Oslo , Norway , on Friday . The prize for literature will be awarded on a date to be announced later . Each prize comes with 8 million Swedish kronor ( $ 1.2 million ) . Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel created the prizes in 1895 to honor work in physics , chemistry , literature and peace . The first economics prize was awarded in 1969 . In 2012 , the medical Nobel Prize was awarded to Sir John B. Gurdon of England and Shinya Yamanaka of Japan for work on reprogramming cells . Their work paved the way for treatment breakthroughs . What to know : Nobel prizes .
Scientists solved a mystery of how cells deliver molecules . All three work at American universities . Prize announcements continue with physics Tuesday . Each prize , endowed by Alfred Nobel in 1895 , comes with $ 1.2 million .