Victor Ambros (L) and Gary Ruvkun (R) were awarded the prize for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. | Photo Credit: AP

Medicine Nobel 2024 awarded to Victor Ambros, Gary Ruvkun for discovery of microRNA

The Nobel Prize for 2024 in Medicine or Physiology has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun

by · The Hindu

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun have been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology 2024, the Nobel Academy  at the Karolinska Institutet announced on Monday (October 7, 2024).

They were awarded the prestigious prize for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.

“Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were interested in how different cell types develop. They discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation,” The Nobel Assembly said in a press statement.

Both Ambros and Ruvkun are American biologists. Ambros currently works at the Programme in Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts in the U.S. Ruvkun is a professor of genetics at the Harvard Medical School and researches microRNA and RNA interference mechanisms at the Ruvkun Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital.

Ambros and Ruvkun’s groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans, the Nobel Assembly said.

“Understanding the regulation of gene activity has been an important goal for many decades. If gene regulation goes awry, it can lead to serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or autoimmunity,” the Nobel Academy said. Photo: The Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén

“Their surprising discovery revealed an entirely new dimension to gene regulation. MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.”

Ambros’s and Ruvkun’s groundbreaking work revealed a previously unknown principle of gene regulation that became essential for multicellular organisms, including humans. The duo made their finding by studying the 1-mm-long roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans.

The body makes proteins in a complex process with two broad steps. In the transcription step, a cell copies a DNA sequence into messenger RNA (mRNA) in the nucleus. The mRNA moves from the nucleus, through the cell fluid, and attaches itself to the ribosome. In the translation step, another type of RNA called transfer RNA (tRNA) brings specific amino acids to the ribosome, where they are linked together in the order specified by the mRNA to make the protein.

Micro RNA, or miRNA, regulates the production of proteins by bonding with and subsequently silencing the mRNA at an appropriate juncture. The process is called post-transcriptional gene regulation.

Ambros and Ruvkun found the first miRNA gene in C. elegans. It was called lin-4. They confirmed its role by modifying the miRNA to result in different parts of the worm’s developmental process to be thrown out of sync. By studying a second miRNA gene they found seven years later, called let-7, they confirmed miRNAs are actually present across the animal kingdom.

“MicroRNA genes have evolved and expanded within the genomes of multicellular organisms for over 500 million years. Today, we know that there are more than a thousand genes for different microRNAs in humans, and that gene regulation by microRNA – discovered by this year’s medicine laureates – is universal among multicellular organisms.”. Photo: The Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine. Ill. Mattias Karlén

Gunilla Karlsson-Hedestam, chairperson of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine 2024, said that although there are no clear applications of miRNAs yet, understanding them is the first step towards further research. 

Last year the Nobel Prize for Physiology was jointly awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their “discoveries concerning nucleoside base modification that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”,

Also read: The Nobel Prize 2024 — an interactive guide

The Prize for Physiology or Medicine kicks off a week of Nobel Prize announcements. The winners for Physics will be announced on October 8, followed by Chemistry on October 9. The winners of the Literature, Peace and Economic Sciences Prize will be declared on October 10, October 11, and October 14 respectively.

The prizes carry a cash award of 10 million Swedish kronor (nearly $900,000) and will be awarded on December 10.

Also Read:2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology: What are mRNA vaccines and how do they work? | Explained

The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who in his will dictated that his estate should be used to fund “prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind”.

Published - October 07, 2024 03:03 pm IST