The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvken for discovering microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. The Karolinska Institute announced on Monday that, “This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine honours two scientists for their discovery of a fundamental principle governing gene activity. They discovered microRNA, a class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation.” This discovery is groundbreaking, as it reveals a completely new way of gene regulation essential for multi-cellular organisms including humans. Both Ambros and Ruvken are American biologists. Ambrose currently works at the Programme in Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusets and Ruvken, a Professor of Genetics at the Harvard Medical School.

MicroRNAs are small non-coding molecules of RNA. They are around 19-24 nucleotides long and are important in determining how much messenger RNA, carrying genetic information eventually, gets translated into protein. Protein synthesis is a multi-step, complex cellular process that occurs in two stages – transcription and translation. During the transcription phase, the gene’s DNA sequence is copied into messenger RNA in the cell nucleus. The messenger RNA then enters the cell fluid and attaches itself to the ribosome which is the site of protein synthesis. Then comes the translation step. Here transfer RNA molecules bring specific amino acids to the ribosomes where they are linked in a particular order as instructed by the messenger RNA, resulting in protein formation.

MicroRNA acts as a medium between the transcription and translation thereby regulating the final production of protein. Though genetic information, stored in our DNA is the same in different cell types, these cell types can produce unique kinds of proteins that can perform specialised functions. This is possible because of microRNAs.

Last year the Nobel for Medicine/Physiology was awarded to Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman for their “Discoveries concerning nucleoside base modification that enabled the development of messenger RNA vaccines against COVID-19”. This Prize event kicks off week-long announcements on the Nobel Prize for Physics on October 8, and Chemistry on October 9, followed by Literature, Peace and Economics on October 10, October 11 and October 14 respectively. The Nobel Prize carries a cash award of 10 million Swedish Kronor and will be awarded on December 10.