Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun are the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine . The award was given for the discovery of microRNA , "a fundamental principle that governs how genetic activity is regulated".
"The information stored in our chromosomes ," reads the note accompanying the award, "can be compared to an instruction manual for all the cells in our body . Every cell contains the same chromosomes, so every cell contains exactly the same set of genes and exactly the same set of instructions. However, different types of cells, such as muscle and nerve cells, have very distinct characteristics. How do these differences arise? The answer lies in genetic regulation, which allows each cell to select only the relevant instructions. This ensures that only the correct set of genes is active in each cell type ."
The microRNAs discovered by Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun are a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation, which is fundamental to how organisms develop and function, and which have paved the way for many therapies. Abnormalities in microRNAs may in fact play an important role in diseases such as cancer, or in congenital defects of hearing, vision or the skeleton.
(Unioneonline/vl)
