Two U.S Scientists, Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun have been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology for their discovery of microRNA and its function in gene control.
This was announced by the awarding organization on Monday.
The Nobel committee stated in a statement that the laureates identified a new class of small RNA molecules that play an important role in gene control.
Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans.
The Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute medical university selects the winners in medicine, who receive an award of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million).
As is customary, the medical prize is the first of the Nobels, perhaps the most prestigious awards in science, literature, and humanitarian effort, with the remaining five to be announced in the coming days.
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.
Different institutions award the prizes in the various fields, with Peace being the only one awarded in Oslo rather than Stockholm, possibly as a result of the political union that existed between the two Nordic countries when Nobel penned his will.
Many prominent researchers have won the Nobel Medicine Prize, including Ivan Pavlov in 1904, who is best known for his investigations on behavior with dogs, and Alexander Fleming, who shared the 1945 prize for the discovery of penicillin.
Last year’s medicine prize was won by Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian scientist, and Drew Weissman, a colleague from the United States, for discoveries that paved the way for COVID-19 vaccinations, which helped to contain the pandemic.
The science, literature, and economics prizes are awarded to the laureates in a ceremony on December 10, Alfred Nobel’s death anniversary, followed by a spectacular luncheon at Stockholm City Hall. On the same day, the laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize is honored in separate ceremonies in Oslo.
