Americans win Nobel Prize for Medicine for pioneering gene discovery of microRNA
Two American scientists were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology Monday for their ground-breaking work on how genes behave.
Two American scientists were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine or physiology Monday for their ground-breaking work on how genes behave.
Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered microRNA, which the Nobel Assembly describes as "a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated."
The tiny microRNA molecules play a crucial role in determining how different cells — which have the same chromosomes, essentially their instruction manual — have different characteristics.
The pair sought to explore how nerve cells and muscle cells, for example, have very different characteristics despite having the same genetic information.
"The answer lies in gene regulation, which allows each cell to select only the relevant instructions," the Nobel announcement said. And the newly discovered microRNA is essential for all multicellular organisms to do this, including humans.
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