The Nobel Prize in Medicine: A new dimension to gene regulation

The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has decided to award the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. Their groundbreaking discovery in the small worm C. elegans revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation. “This turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans. MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function,” states the Nobel Committe for Physiology or Medicine.

MicroRNAs

Thanks to the seminal discovery by Ambros and Ruvkun, a new dimension to gene regulation has been revealed. Whereas proteins in the nucleus regulate RNA transcription and splicing, microRNAs control the translation and degradation of mRNA in the cytoplasm. This unexpected layer of post-transcriptional gene regulation has critical importance throughout animal development and in adult cell types and is essential for complex multicellular life.

Advances are being made in developing microRNA-based diagnostics and therapeutics for diseases, such as metabolic disorders, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative conditions, and cancer.

The two Laureates

Victor Ambros was born in 1953 in Hanover, New Hampshire, USA. He received his PhD from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, in 1979 where he also did postdoctoral research 1979-1985. He became a Principal Investigator at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA in 1985. He was Professor at Dartmouth Medical School from 1992-2007 and he is now Silverman Professor of Natural Science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester, MA.

Gary Ruvkun was born in Berkeley, California, USA in 1952. He received his PhD from Harvard University in 1982. He was a postdoctoral fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA, 1982-1985. He became a Principal Investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School in 1985, where he is now Professor of Genetics.