STOCKHOLM Americans Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka won the 2012 Nobel Prize in chemistry on Wednesday for studies of protein receptors that let body cells sense and respond to outside signals. Such studies are key for developing better drugs.

The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said the two researchers had made groundbreaking discoveries on an important family of receptors, known as G-protein-coupled receptors.

About half of all medications act on these receptors, so learning about them will help scientists to come up with better drugs.

The human body has about 1,000 kinds of such receptors, which let it respond to a wide variety of chemical signals, like adrenaline. Some receptors are in the nose, tongue and eyes, and let us sense smells, tastes and vision.

Lefkowitz, 69, is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and professor at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina. Kobilka, 57, is a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine in California.

'My wife gave me an elbow' "I'm feeling very, very excited," Lefkowitz told a news conference in Stockholm by phone.

He said he was fast asleep when the Nobel committee called.

"I did not hear it ... I wear earplugs, so my wife gave me an elbow," he said. "And there it was. ... It was a total shock and surprise."

Lefktowitz said he had no clue that he was being considered for the Nobel Prize, though he added it has always been "a bit of a fantasy" to receive the award.

Kobilka said he found out around 2:30 a.m., after the Nobel committee called his home twice. He said he didn't get to the phone the first time, but that when he picked up the second time, he spoke to five members of the committee.

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Americans win Nobel prize for chemistry