А вот более развернутый комментарий Нобелевского комитета --
In studies during the early 1990s, Gregg Semenza identified, and then in 1995 purified and cloned, a transcription factor that regulates these oxygen-dependent responses. He named this factor HIF, for Hypoxia Inducible Factor, and showed that it consists of two components: one a novel and oxygen-sensitive moiety, HIF-1α, and a second, previously identified and constitutively expressed and non-oxygen-regulated protein known as ARNT.
In 1995 William Kaelin Jr was engaged in the study of the von Hippel-Lindau tumour suppressor gene, and after isolation of the first full-length clone of the gene showed that it could suppress tumour growth in VHL mutant tumorigenic cell lines.
Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe then demonstrated in 1999 that there was an association between VHL and HIF-1α, and that VHL regulated HIF-1α, post-translational and oxygen-sensitive degradation. Finally, the Kaelin and Ratcliffe groups simultaneously showed that this regulation of HIF-1α, by VHL depends on hydroxylation of HIF-1α, a covalent modification that is itself dependent on oxygen.
Through the combined work of these three laureates it was demonstrated that the response by gene expression to changes in oxygen is directly coupled to oxygen levels in the animal cell, allowing immediate cellular responses to occur to oxygenation through the action of the HIF transcription factor.
Я сам по этому поводу ничего не могу сказать: важно это или нет, широко или узко. Не моя чашка чая.