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The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Victor Ambrose and Gary Rubcon, for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation

The two already won the Wolf Prize for this discovery exactly ten years ago - in 2014, and once again it was proven that the Wolf Prize is a good predictor of winning the Nobel

mRNA. Illustration: depositphotos.com
mRNA. Illustration: depositphotos.com

The Karolinska Institute in Sweden announced today the winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine for 2024. The prize was awarded jointly to Victor Ambrose and Gary Robkon "for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation".

Gary Rubcon, who is employed at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and Victor Ambrose, a researcher at the University of Vermont. Their work serves as a basis for further research in areas such as cancer, neurodegeneration and other developmental processes.

The award recognizes the two scientists for discovering a fundamental principle that explains how gene activity is controlled in the various cells of the organism. The information stored in our chromosomes is like an instruction manual for all the cells in the body. Each cell contains the same chromosomes, and therefore the same genes and instructions. However, different types of cells, such as muscle cells and nerve cells, exhibit unique characteristics. The question is how do these differences arise? The answer lies in gene regulation, which allows each cell to choose only the instructions relevant to it, thus ensuring that only the correct set of genes will be active in each cell type.

Ambrose and Robkon were interested in how different cell types develop. They discovered the microRNA, a new category of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation. Their revolutionary discovery revealed an entirely new principle of gene regulation that was found to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans. It is now known that the human genome encodes over two thousand microRNAs. Their surprising discovery revealed a whole new dimension in gene regulation, and microRNAs are proving to be fundamentally essential for the development and functioning of organisms.

In 2014, the two jointly won the Wolf Prize awarded in Israel and is considered a predictor of future Nobel Prize winners. The award committee's announcement at the time read: "Prof. Gary Robkon and Prof. Victor Ambrose won it for the discovery of microRNA: microRNAs are small RNA molecules that were discovered by Prof. Victor Ambrose and Prof. Gary Robkon in 1993. The initial discovery was within Their research on mechanisms that control gene expression in the C. elegans worm. In their research, it became clear that these RNA molecules are small and contain between 22 and 25 nucleotides, and therefore received the nickname micro-RNA. The micro-RNA molecules monitor protein expression guided by messenger RNA molecules (mRNA), where the control is done by specific binding of the micro-RNA to the control region of the messenger RNA. In the meantime, the corona epidemic broke out and with it mRNA vaccines, all thanks to them.

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