Nobel Prize 2024: Which Two Scientists Won Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovering miRNA

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun. The award is given to them for their discovery of microRNA and its role in controlling gene activity after transcription.

Sweden's Karolinska Institute made the announcement, stating, “The two scientists who discovered the fundamental principle underlying the regulation of gene activity are recognized with this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. They discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation."

Nobel Prize for Medicine 2025: Discovery

With their ground-breaking finding, Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun unveiled a novel theory of gene control that proved to be crucial for all multicellular creatures, including humans.

For many years, one of the main goals in the medicine line has been to understand how gene activity is regulated. Gene regulation errors can result in major illnesses including diabetes, cancer, or autoimmune diseases.

Our chromosomes contain information equivalent to an instruction manual for every cell in our body. Every cell of the body has identical chromosomes, which means that each cell has an identical gene and instruction set within. However, certain cells—such as nerve and muscle cells—have distinctly different properties than other cells. The question arises how is this variation occurring? The key to the solution is gene regulation, which enables each cell to choose only the relevant instructions. This guarantees that in every cell type, just the appropriate set of genes is active.

This discovery changed how we understand the behavior of cells in multicellular organisms. While the cells of single-celled organisms are self-sufficient, the cells in multicellular organisms take on specialized roles, performing different tasks.

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Nobel Prize for Medicine 2025: Selection and Cash Award

The winners of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine are selected by the Karolinska Institute Medical University in Sweden's Nobel Assembly. The winners are awarded a prize money of 11 million Swedish crowns, or $1.1 million.

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