Medicine Nobel awarded for gene-regulating microRNAs

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to two geneticists who discovered microRNAs, a class of tiny RNA molecules that help to control how genes are expressed in multicellular organisms.

Victor Ambros, who works at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, and Gary Ruvkun at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in Boston share the prize pot of 11 million Swedish kroner (US$1 million), awarded by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

MicroRNAs perform a multitude of tasks in complex organisms, from embryonic development to cell physiology. Researchers have speculated that they were involved in evolutionary leaps, such as humans bulging brains, and they have been implicated in the onset of cancers and other diseases.

Speaking at a press conference on 7 October, Ruvkun said he is looking forward to receiving his Nobel at the official ceremony later this year. He got a preview of the raucous celebration when he joined MGH biochemist Jack Szostack, who shared the 2009 medicine Nobel, on the trip to Stockholm. They know how to party, Ruvkun said.

via www.nature.com

And this is after Ambros was denied tenure at Harvard. Oh ho ho. Maybe you were wrong, O Harvard? Maybe Harvard will invite him to speak now? Rich indeed.