The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded Monday to Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNAs, a new class of tiny RNA molecules playing a crucial role in regulating gene activity.
“This year’s Nobel Prize rewards two scientists for their discovery of a fundamental principle governing the regulation of gene activity,” the jury said in a statement.
MicroRNAs “are of fundamental importance for the development and function of organisms.”
Ambros, 70, and Ruvkun, 72, published their findings on “a new level of gene regulation” in two separate papers in 1993 that proved decisive.
Collaboratively, but working separately, they conducted research on a millimeter roundworm, C. elegans, to determine why and when cellular mutations occurred.
“Dysregulation of gene regulation can lead to serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes or autoimmunity. This is why understanding the regulation of gene activity has been an important objective for several decades,” underlines the press release.
Last year, the Nobel Prize in Medicine recognized the advances of Hungarian researcher Katalin Kariko and her American colleague Drew Weissman in the development of messenger RNA vaccines, decisive in the fight against COVID-19.
The prize comes with a reward of 11 million crowns (approximately $1.4 million), the highest nominal value (in Swedish currency) in the more than century-old history of the Nobel Prize.
The Nobel season continues in Stockholm on Tuesday with physics, then chemistry on Wednesday, before the highly anticipated literature prizes on Thursday and the peace prize on Friday, the only prize awarded in Oslo. The most recent economy price closes the vintage next Monday.