Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun
The New York Times
The prize was awarded for their discovery of microRNA, which helps determine how cells develop and function.
Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for the discovery of microRNA, which plays a crucial role in determining how organisms develop and function — and how they sometimes malfunction.
MicroRNA are a class of tiny RNA molecules, Nobel Prize officials said. The discovery revealed a new principle of gene regulation that is crucial for multicellular organisms, including humans.
Gene regulation determines differences between types of cells, and if it goes off track it can lead to diseases such as cancer, diabetes or autoimmunity, the Nobel Committee said. Researchers now know that the human genome provides instructions for over 1,000 forms of microRNA, which are important to the development and function of organisms.
“That opened up a whole new understanding of how diseases happen, which means that we have new possibilities for reversing them,” said Jon Lorsch, director of the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Treatments based on microRNAs are in clinical trials for heart disease, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
Dr. Ambros is from Hanover, N.H., and is the Silverman professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Mass. Dr. Ruvkun, from Berkeley, Calif., is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and a member of the Mass General Research Institute.
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