The ribosome "reads" DNA and translates the code to make the body´s tens of thousands of different proteins, thus building and controlling life at the chemical level.
The Nobel committee said the trio´s contribution had been in X-ray crystallography that had generated 3D models, helping to showing the ribosome´s individual atomic structure.
These models are now being harnessed by scientists in the quest for new microbe-killing drugs, "directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity´s suffering," the jury said.
"Many of today´s antibiotics cure various diseases by blocking the function of bacterial ribosomes," it said.
"Without functional ribosomes, bacteria cannot survive. This is why ribosomes are such an important target for new antibiotics."
Last year, the prize went to Osamu Shimomura of Japan and US duo Martin Chalfie and Roger Tsien on Wednesday for a fluorescent protein derived from a jellyfish that has become a vital tool in research.
On Tuesday, the Physics Prize went to Charles Kao, Willard Boyle and George Smith for work on fibre optics and light sensing that helped unleash the Information Technology revolution.
Kao is a British and US citizen, Boyle holds Canadian and US citizenship and Smith is from the US.
And on Monday, the Medicine Prize honoured Australian-American scientist Elizabeth Blackburn and Carol Greider and Jack Szostak of the United States for identifying a key molecular switch in cellular ageing.
The Literature Prize will follow on Thursday, while the Peace Prize will be announced in Oslo on Friday. The Economics Prize will wrap up the awards back in Stockholm on October 12.
Laureates receive a gold medal, a diploma and 10 million Swedish kronor (1.42 million dollars, 980,000 euros) which can be split between up to three winners per prize.
The formal prize ceremonies in Stockholm and Oslo will be held as tradition dictates on December 10, the anniversary of the death in 1896 of the prize´s creator, Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite Alfred Nobel.
Nobel died childless in 1896, dedicating his vast fortune to create "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, shall have conferred the greatest benefit on mankind."
The prizes were first awarded in 1901.
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