(Reuters) - Here is a look at the 2012 Nobel Prize for Chemistry, which was awarded on Wednesday to Americans Robert Lefkowitz and Brian Kobilka for "for studies of G-protein-coupled receptors".

The 2012 prize was awarded for having mapped how a family of receptors called G-protein- coupled receptors (GPCRs) work. In this family, there are receptors for adrenalin, dopamine, serotonin, light, flavor and odor. Most physiological processes depend on GPCRs. Around half of all medications act through these receptors, among them beta blockers, antihistamines and various kinds of psychiatric medications.

103 Nobel Prizes in Chemistry have been awarded to 160 laureates from 1901-2011. Frederick Sanger won the prize twice.

Only four are women. Two of the four, Marie Curie and Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin, won unshared Chemistry Prizes.

Some Famous Winners: The Curies were the most successful "Nobel Prize family". The husband-and-wife partnership of Marie Curie and Pierre Curie were awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. Marie Curie herself won the 1911 chemistry prize. Their daughter Irne Joliot-Curie was awarded the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, together with her husband, Frdric Joliot.

Adolf Hitler forbade two German winners from receiving the prize, Richard Kuhn in 1938 and Adolf Butenandt in 1939.

Sources: Reuters, http://nobelprize.org. Chambers Biographical Dictionary.

(Reporting by David Cutler, London Editorial Reference Unit)

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Factbox: A look at the Nobel Chemistry Prize