Nobel Prize 2024: Victor Ambros & Gary Ruvkun Win For Discovery of microRNA
American Scientists Victor Ambros & Gary Ruvkun have been awarded the Nobel Prize 2024 in Medicine for the discovery of microRNA, a family of small molecules that play a crucial role in regulating genes inside the body.
Nobel Prize 2024 winner Ambros said, “Honestly, this was not something that I expected. The microRNAs are part of a broader sweep of regulatory mechanisms. What the microRNAs end up revealing for us is a way that parts of our genome can communicate with other parts of the genome. The significance of this discovery of microRNAs is that it allowed us to be aware of a very complex and nuanced layer of regulation whereby genes in our cells talk to each other”, he added.
Ruvkun said he was sleeping when he got the call at about 4 am. He recalled his first thought after receiving congratulations was “This changes everything.”
The Nobel Prize Committee praised this “groundbreaking discovery which revealed an entirely new dimension to gene regulation.” Victor Ambros, a professor of Natural Science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Gary Ruvkun, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School, had been working on this discovery for decades.
Their investigation answers how the differences in each cell type arise. Both scientists have worked on finding out the reason for the different characteristics of cells. “The answer lies in gene regulation, which allows each cell to select only the relevant instructions. This ensures that only the correct set of genes is active in each cell type”, said the Nobel Committee.
“Nobel recognition for Ambros and Ruvkun has been anticipated by many for years”, said David Pendlebury, Head of Research analysis at Clarivate’s Institute for Scientific Information. Although the two scientists have won many other prizes, the Nobel Prize represents the pinnacle of their scientific career and intellectual brilliance.
MicroRNA is very important for gene regulation, cell differentiation, and immune response in our systems. If something goes wrong with MicroRNA, it can lead to conditions like hearing loss skeletal disorders, and even cancer.
Several microRNA trials are going on to figure out how to combat diseases caused by unstable gene regulation. “Although there are no very clear applications available yet with microRNAs, understanding them, knowing that they exist, understanding their regulatory networks is always the first step,” Karlsson-Hedestam said.
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