Announcements from major national award bodies in the US, such as the National Medal of Science or Lasker Awards

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun Win 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine for MicroRNA Discovery

Oct 7, 2024, 09:45 AM

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to American biologists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their groundbreaking discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. This discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that is essential for multicellular organisms, including humans. MicroRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules, helps control gene activity and has evolved over 500 million years. The Nobel committee highlighted that understanding gene regulation is crucial as its malfunction can lead to serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and autoimmunity. Their research involved studying the roundworm C. elegans.