Nobel Prize in Medicine 2024: Victor Ambros, Gary Ruvkun win for microRNA discovery
Nobel Prize in Medicine 2024: Victor Ambros, Gary Ruvkun win for microRNA discovery
The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun, as announced by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm on Monday.
The American biologists jointly received the prestigious award for their discovery of microRNA and its role in regulating gene expression after transcription. The Nobel Assembly said that their discovery is “proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.”
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Why Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun got Nobel in Medicine?
This year’s Nobel Prize was awarded to scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for discovering microRNA, a tiny molecule that plays a key role in regulating gene activity.
Even though all cells in our body have the same genes, different types of cells, like muscle and nerve cells, perform different functions. This is possible due to gene regulation, which allows cells to "switch on" only the genes they need. Ambros and Ruvkun’s discovery of microRNA revealed a new way this regulation happens.
Their finding has been essential in understanding how organisms, including humans, develop and function, the Nobel Assembly said.
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Who won Nobel Prize in Medicine last year?
Last year, the prize went to Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman for their groundbreaking discoveries that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19, which played a crucial role in combating the pandemic.
The prize includes a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (around ₹8.3 crore), part of a bequest from the prize's founder, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.
Winners will receive their awards on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel's death.
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Nobel Prize announcement schedule
The announcements for other Nobel Prizes will continue throughout the week, with the Physics Prize on Tuesday at 3:15pm IST, Chemistry on Wednesday at 3:15pm, Literature on Thursday at 4:30pm, the Peace Prize on Friday at 2:30pm, and the Economics award on October 14 at 3:15pm.