The Prize Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology 2024 It’s for Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of micro-RNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation, reported this Monday the Karolinska Institute Nobel Assembly from Stockholm.
The scientists were distinguished for “his discovery of a fundamental principle governing the regulation of gene activity“said the jury.
Last year, the Nobel Prize in Medicine it was for the hungarian Katalin Kariko and the American Drew Weissman for his discoveries about messenger RNA that opened the way for the development of revolutionary vaccines against covid-19.
So, Amros and Ruvkun They became interested in how different cell types develop and discovered micro-RNAs, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play “a crucial role” in gene regulation.
“Their revolutionary discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans. It is now known that the human genome encodes more than a thousand microRNAs,” he highlights.
Understanding the regulation of gene activity has been an important goal for many decades.
Anomalous regulation can contribute to cancer, diabetes or autoimmunity. In humans, mutations have been detected in genes that encode microRNAs, causing conditions such as congenital hearing loss and eye and skeletal disorders.
“This year’s Nobel Prize focuses on the discovery of a vital regulatory mechanism used in cells to control gene activity,” The statement highlights, which specifies that genetic information passes from DNA to messenger RNA (mRNA) through a process called transcription, and from there to the cellular machinery for the production of proteins.
Over there, mRNAs are transformed so that proteins can develop according to the genetic instructions stored in DNA.
In the 1960s it was shown that specialized proteins, known as transcription factors, can bind to specific regions of the DNA and control the flow of genetic information by determining which mRNA is produced.
Since then, thousands of transcription factors have been identified, and for a long time it was believed that the fundamental principles of gene regulation had been resolved.
However, in 1993, this year’s Nobel laureates published unexpected findings that described a new level of gene regulation, which turned out to be very significant and conserved throughout evolution.
The Nobel Prize in Medicine is the first in the round of these prestigious awardswhich will be followed by announcements on successive days of those of Physics, Chemistry, Literature, Peace and finally that of Economynext Monday.
What is the Nobel Prize in Medicine?
Every year, the Nobel Committee in Stockholm awards the most important advances in different subjects of international interest such as medicine, economics, science and literature, among others.
Throughout history, the Medicine Prize distinguished major discoveries such as X-rays, penicillin, insulin or DNA, but also awarded lobotomy and the insecticide DDT, which have fallen out of favor today.
