Science Nobel Prize in Medicine for US researchers Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun

This year's Nobel Prize for Medicine goes to the US-Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA and its role in gene regulation. This was announced by the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

The two researchers had discovered a fundamental principle for controlling gene activity, it said. "Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that proved to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans," said the Nobel Committee in its citation. MicroRNAs proved to be fundamentally important for the development and function of organisms.

The information stored in chromosomes can be compared to an instruction manual for all cells in the body. Every cell contains the same chromosomes and therefore the same set of genes. Different cell types, such as muscle and nerve cells, nevertheless have very different characteristics. Mechanisms of gene regulation, as described by Ambros and Ruvkun, play a role in this.

Victor Ambros (born 1953) works at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Gary Ruvkun (born 1952) at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Almost one million francs

Since 2023, the prize money for a Nobel Prize has amounted to 11 million Swedish kronor, which corresponds to around 910,000 francs. Last year, the Hungarian biochemist Katalin Karikó and the US immunologist Drew Weissman were honored with the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their basic research that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against the coronavirus.

The Nobel Prize week started with the Medicine Prize. The winners of the physics and chemistry prizes will be named on Tuesday and Wednesday. This will be followed by those for literature and peace. The series of announcements will end next Monday with the so-called Nobel Prize for Economics, which is sponsored by the Swedish Riksbank.

The ceremonial presentation of all awards will take place on December 10, the anniversary of the death of prize donor Alfred Nobel.

SDA