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Americans Victor Ambros, from the University of Massachusetts, and Gary Ruvklun, from Harvard Medical School, were awarded
The discovery of microRNA that regulate the production of proteins in cells has been awarded the prize This year's Nobel Prize in Medicine. The winners are the Americans Victor Ambrose, from the University of Massachusetts, and Gary Ruvkun, from Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.
They have been recognized “for the discovery of microRNAs and their role in post-transcriptional genetic regulation”, according to the verdict of the Nobel Academy at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm (Sweden), which awards the prize for Medicine. The jury emphasizes that it is “a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated.”
They discovered a key biological mechanism in the evolution of complex organisms and fundamental for human health
MicroRNAs are tiny fragments of RNA which come into play in the final phase of protein production in cells. Before Ambros and Ruvkun's discovery, this protein production was understood as a two-step process: first, the genetic information in DNA is converted into messenger RNA (mRNA) in the nucleus of cells (technically called transcription); then, from the instructions in the mRNA, the cell's machinery manufactures proteins in the cytoplasm.
Ambros and Ruvkun demonstrated that microRNAs can block the second stage of this process. If a microRNA binds to mRNA, it inhibits the production of a protein.
Nobel Prize Winners They discovered the first microRNA, whose existence no one had suspected, when they were postdoctoral researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the 80s. They did this by researching worms C. elegans, an animal barely a millimetre in length, ideal for biological research.
His work, published in the magazine Cell In 1993, it was initially received with indifference by the scientific community, which interpreted the microRNA discovered in worms C. elegans was irrelevant to other bodies.
The scientific community received the discovery with indifference; years later they realized its importance.
But in the following years, Ruvkun discovered another microRNA shared by multiple species. Since then, hundreds of microRNAs have been discovered, which have turned out to be a genetic regulation mechanism shared by all multicellular organisms, including the human species.
Ambros and Ruvkun have revealed a mechanism “that has been in operation for hundreds of millions of years,” which “has allowed the evolution of increasingly complex organisms” and whose “abnormal regulation may contribute to cancer”, the Nobel Academy at the Karolinska Institutet highlights in the statement announcing the award.
Human diseases linked to malfunctioning microRNAs include, in addition to some cancers, congenital deafness and eye and bone pathologies, the Nobel Academy reports.
Is second consecutive year that the Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to research related to RNA. Last year, biochemist Katalin Karikó and immunologist Drew Weissman from the University of Pennsylvania (USA) received the award for their discoveries that enabled the development of messenger RNA vaccines against the Covid virus.
Ambros and Ruvkun will receive the award at an event in Stockholm on December 10th, coinciding with the date of Alfred Nobel's death. The 11 million Swedish crowns (around 970.000 euros) that the prize is worth in each category will be shared out.
Following tradition, The Nobel Prize in Medicine was announced on the first Monday in October and it is the first of this year that has been made public. It will be followed by Physics tomorrow; Chemistry on Wednesday; Literature on Thursday; Peace on Friday; and the list will be closed by Economics next Monday.
Source: La Vanguardia
Image: The 2024 Nobel Prize Winners in Medicine (Nobel Prizes)
