US duo win Nobel for gene regulation breakthrough

Stockholm: US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday for their discovery of microRNA and its role in how g...

Stockholm: US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday for their discovery of microRNA and its role in how genes are regulated.

Understanding the regulation of gene activity has been an important goal for decades, the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute said.

"If gene regulation goes awry, it can lead to serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or autoimmunity", it said.

"Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans," the jury said.

Ruvkun, 72, told Swedish public radio SR he was shocked to receive the prize committee's call in the wee hours of Monday.