US duo wins Nobel for gene regulation breakthrough

STOCKHOLM — United States 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 jury said.

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

NOBEL WINNERS Olle Kaempe, member of the Nobel Assembly, speaks to the media in front of a screen displaying a picture of this year’s laureates Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun during the announcement of the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Oct. 7, 2024. Ambros and Ruvkun won the Nobel Medicine Prize for the discovery of microRNA and its role in how gene activity is regulated, the Nobel jury said. PHOTO BY JONATHAN NACKSTRAND / AFP

«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.

Collaborating but working separately, the pair conducted research on a 1 millimeter roundworm, C. elegans, to determine why cell mutations occurred and when.

They discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation, which in turn allows each cell to select only relevant instructions.

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Their findings were published in two articles in 1993.

«The seminal discovery of microRNA has introduced a new and unexpected mechanism of gene regulation,» Thomas Perlmann, secretary-general of the Nobel Assembly, told reporters.

«MicroRNAs are important for our understanding of embryological development, normal cell physiology and diseases such as cancer,» he said.

Ambros, 70, is a professor at the University of Massachusetts medical school, while Ruvkun, 72, is a professor at Harvard Medical School.

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The pair will receive their Nobel prize, consisting of a diploma, a gold medal and a $1 million check, from King Carl XVI Gustaf in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of the 1896 death of scientist Alfred Nobel, who created the prizes in his last will