Revolutionizing Biology: The Nobel Prize and MicroRNA Research

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun, two US scientists, have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024 for their research on microRNA.
Their findings contribute to our understanding of the origins of sophisticated life on Earth and the diversity of tissues that make up the human body.
MicroRNAs affect the way that genes—the blueprints for life—are regulated within living things, such as humans.Creative Blogger,
A prize sum of 11 million Swedish kronor (£810,000) is divided among the winners.

The identical basic genetic information is encoded in each and every human cell and is stored in our DNA.
The form and function of the cells in the human body differ greatly, even though they all begin with the same genetic material.
Heart cells beat rhythmically, while nerve cells send out electrical impulses that are different. A kidney cell removes urea from the circulation, whereas a liver cell is a metabolic powerhouse. The light-sensing capacities of cells in the retina are different in skillset to white blood cells that manufacture antibodies to fight illness.Creative Blogger,
Because genes express themselves in different ways, a given starting material can provide so much variability.

Revolutionizing Biology: The Nobel Prize and MicroRNA Research


The first researchers in the US to identify microRNAs and how they controlled how

Without the ability to alter gene expression, every cell in an organism would be similar, hence microRNAs helped enable the emergence of complex living forms.
MicroRNAs' aberrant control has been linked to cancer as well as a number of other illnesses, such as birth deformities and hearing loss.

A serious example is the DICER1 syndrome, which is brought on by mutations that impact microRNAs and results in cancer in a number of tissues.

Professor Ruvkun, 72, teaches at Harvard Medical School, while Professor Ambros, 70, works at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.
Both used the nematode worm C. elegans for their studies.
After experimenting on a mutant variant of the worm that was unable to create certain cell types, they were able to identify small genetic fragments, or microRNAs, that were crucial to the worms' growth.

Revolutionizing Biology: The Nobel Prize and MicroRNA Research
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Here's how it functions:

Our DNA has genes, or genetic instructions, in it.
Our cells produce a copy known as messenger RNA, or simply mRNA (you may recall this from the Covid vaccination). This copy exits the cell's nucleus and directs the cell's factories that produce proteins to begin producing a particular protein.
However, microRNAs obstruct the messenger RNA's function by attaching themselves to it.
Essentially, the gene's expression in the cell has been inhibited by the mircoRNA.
Additional research revealed that this process was essential to all life on Earth and was not specific to worms.

Here's how it functions:
Our DNA has genes, or genetic instructions, in it.
Our cells produce a copy known as messenger RNA, or simply mRNA (you may recall this from the Covid vaccination). This copy exits the cell's nucleus and directs the cell's factories that produce proteins to begin producing a particular protein.
However, microRNAs obstruct the messenger RNA's function by attaching themselves to it.
Essentially, the gene's expression in the cell has been inhibited by the mircoRNA.
Additional research revealed that this process was essential to all life on Earth and was not specific to worms.

Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman were the previous winners in 2023 for creating the technique that resulted in the mRNA Covid vaccinations.

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For his studies on human evolution, Svante Paabo will be honored in 2022.

2021: David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, in recognition of their research on the body's temperature and touch perception.

2020 - Michael Houghton, Harvey Alter and Charles Rice for the discovery of the virus Hepatitis C.
2019: Gregg Semenza, William Kaelin, and Sir Peter Ratcliffe for figuring out how cells detect and adjust to oxygen levels.

2018: Tasuku Honjo and James P. Allison for figuring out how to use the body's immune system to combat cancer.

Revolutionizing Biology: The Nobel Prize and MicroRNA Research

2017: Michael Rosbash, Jeffrey Hall, and Michael Young for figuring out how our bodies maintain a body clock or circadian rhythm.

2016 - Yoshinori Ohsumi for finding how cells keep healthy by recycling waste. Creative Blogger,