VVP Gary Ruvkun is joint winnter of 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine
Many congratulations to VVP Gary Ruvkun who has just been named joint winner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine! Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, shares the prize with Victor Ambros, researcher at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, for their discovery of microRNAs, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation.
The information stored within our chromosomes can be likened to an instruction manual for all cells in our body. Every cell contains the same chromosomes, so every cell contains exactly the same set of genes and exactly the same set of instructions. Yet, different cell types, such as muscle and nerve cells, have very distinct characteristics. How do these differences arise? The answer lies in gene regulation, which allows each cell to select only the relevant instructions. This ensures that only the correct set of genes is active in each cell type.
Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were interested in how different cell types develop. They discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation. Their groundbreaking 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 codes for over one thousand microRNAs. Their surprising discovery revealed an entirely new dimension to gene regulation. MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.