Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun have received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of microRNA and its role in gene control.
The Nobel Assembly said in a statement on Monday that the United States-based laureates discovered the new class of small RNA molecules, which play an important role in controlling gene activity.
“Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans,” according to the release. Ambros did the study that resulted in his prize at Harvard University.
He is currently a professor of natural sciences at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. Ruvkun conducted his research at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he is a genetics professor, according to Nobel Committee secretary Thomas Perlmann.
Each year, the medicine prize is the first in the crop of Nobels to be announced, with the remaining five set to be unveiled over the coming days
The winners for medicine are selected by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute medical university and receive a prize sum of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1m).
Created in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes have been awarded for breakthroughs in science, literature and peace since 1901, while economics is a later addition