STOCKHOLM: US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medication for the invention of microRNA and its essential function in how multicellular organisms develop and stay, the award-giving physique stated on Monday (Oct 7).
The Nobel meeting stated in an announcement that the laureates found the brand new class of tiny RNA molecules, which play a vital function in gene regulation.
“Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a totally new precept of gene regulation that turned out to be important for multicellular organisms, together with people,” the meeting stated.
Their work helped clarify how cells specialise and turn into differing types, equivalent to muscle and nerve cells, although all of the cells in a person include the identical set of genes and directions for rising and staying alive.
Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel committee for physiology, stated he had reached Ruvkun by telephone, waking him up early within the US morning, however he was ultimately completely happy and “very enthusiastic”. He had not but reached Ambros, he stated.
“(Ruvkun’s) spouse answered. It took a very long time until he got here to the telephone and he was very drained,” Perlmann stated at a press convention.
Ambros is a professor on the College of Massachusetts Medical Faculty, whereas Ruvkun is a professor at Harvard Medical Faculty and can be affiliated with Massachusetts Normal Hospital in Boston.
FIRST OF 2024 NOBEL PRIZES
The winners of the prize for physiology or drugs are chosen by the Nobel Meeting of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute medical college and obtain a prize sum of 11 million Swedish crowns (US$1.1 million).
As yearly, the physiology or drugs prize is the primary within the crop of Nobels, arguably essentially the most prestigious prizes in science, literature and humanitarian endeavour, with the remaining 5 set to be unveiled over the approaching days.
Created within the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes have been awarded for breakthroughs in science, literature and peace since 1901, whereas economics is a later addition.
Totally different establishments award the prizes in numerous fields, with Peace being the one one awarded in Oslo somewhat than Stockholm, probably on account of the political union that existed between the 2 Nordic international locations when Nobel penned his will.
Previous winners of the Nobel drugs prize embody many well-known researchers equivalent to Ivan Pavlov in 1904, most recognized for his experiments on behaviour utilizing canines, and Alexander Fleming, who shared the 1945 prize for the invention of penicillin.
Final 12 months’s drugs prize was awarded to the runaway favourites Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian scientist, and US colleague Drew Weissman, for discoveries that paved the way in which for COVID-19 vaccines that helped curb the pandemic.
Steeped in custom, the science, literature and economics prizes are introduced to the laureates in a ceremony on Dec 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s dying, adopted by a lavish banquet at Stockholm metropolis corridor. Separate festivities attend the winner of the peace prize in Oslo on the identical day.
