India, Oct. 6 -- From a humble "happy surprise" to simply "don't be ridiculous!", reactions were quite varied from the medical scientists who won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday, October 6.

Mary E Brunkow, Fred Ramsdell and Dr Shimon Sakaguchi won for their discoveries that can help prevent the immune system from mistakenly harming one's own body, thus not reacting adversely to medicines for instance.

When Sakaguchi, 74, who is a distinguished professor at Osaka University in Japan, got a call from Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel committee, he "sounded incredibly grateful".

Sakaguchi later at a press conference called the win "a happy surprise". He modestly said he thought he'd have to wait "until the research mak...