The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Americans who discovered microRNA: their theory helps fight cancer, viruses and genetic diseases
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024 has been awarded to Americans Victor Ambrose and Gary Ravkan for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation, writes with the BBC.
Gary Ravkan, a molecular biologist and geneticist, is 72 years old. He is a member of the US National Academies of Sciences and the US Academy of Medicine, as well as the American Philosophical Society. Victor Ambrose, a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, is 70 years old. He conducted many of Ravkan's studies together.
What is microRNA
Every cell in the human body contains the same genetic information, written in our DNA. But despite this, the cells of the human body differ from each other in form and function.
The electrical impulses of nerve cells are different from the rhythmic beating of heart cells. Liver cells, a powerful center of metabolism, are different from kidney cells that filter urea from the blood. The light-sensitive abilities of retinal cells are different from the skills of cells that produce antibodies to fight infection.
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This diversity can arise from the same starting material through gene expression. Genetic information moves from DNA into messenger RNA (mRNA) through a process called transcription, and then into the cell's machinery to make proteins.
There, mRNA is translated to produce proteins according to the genetic instructions written in DNA. Since the mid-20th century, some of the most fundamental scientific discoveries have explained how these processes occur.
Without the ability to control gene transcription, all cells in the body would be identical. Thus, microRNAs helped the evolution of complex life forms.
Abnormal regulation of microRNAs may contribute to the development of cancer and certain diseases, including congenital hearing loss and bone disorders.
Ambrose and Ravkan conducted their research on nematode worms Caenorhabditis elegans, which are widely used in biological research. They are about 1 mm long and live in the soil. Due to their transparency and simple structure, these organisms serve as a model for studying the development of neurobiology and genetics.
Ambrose and Ravkan experimented with a mutant form of the worm that failed to develop certain types of cells. They eventually isolated tiny fragments of genetic material, or microRNAs, that were essential for the worms to develop.
Here's how the process works:
- The gene or genetic instruction is contained in our DNA.
- Our cells make a copy of it called messenger RNA, or simply mRNA (we remember it from the COVID-19 vaccines).
- It comes out of the cell nucleus and gives the command to the cell's protein factories to start producing a specific protein.
- But microRNAs, by sticking to mRNA and stopping its work, interfere with this.
Further work showed that this process is not unique to worms, but is a fundamental component of life on Earth.
Last year, the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology was awarded to Katalin Karikó (Hungary) and Drew Weissman (USA) for discoveries that made it possible to develop a new type of RNA-based vaccine.
Over the two and a half years of the coronavirus pandemic, the use of RNA vaccines to prevent COVID-19 has helped save tens of millions of lives.
History of awards
Since 1901, a total of 114 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded, with 226 winners.
The prize may be divided equally between two works if each of them is found to be worthy of the award.
If the work that wins the prize is created by two or three authors, it is awarded to them jointly.
Of the 39 prizes in medicine, one laureate was awarded, 35 were shared between two people, and 39 were shared between three laureates.
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has not been awarded nine times: in 1915-1918, 1921, 1925, 1940-1942.
According to the rules of the Nobel Committee, if none of the works under consideration seem sufficiently advanced and unique to the experts, the prize fund is retained until the following year.
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There are 13 women among the Nobel Prize laureates in Physiology or Medicine. Of these, only Barbara McClintock received it alone, without co-authors, in 1983.
To date, the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in Physiology or Medicine is Frederick G. Banting, who received it in 1923 at the age of 32.
The oldest recipient is Peyton Rose, who was 1966 years old when the prize was awarded in 87.
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