Award in Stockholm
Nobel Prize in Medicine goes to two genetic researchers from the USA
The winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine 2024: Victor Ambros (lr, screen) and Gary Ruvkun
© Steffen Trumpf / DPA
The Nobel Prize season has started: Traditionally, the first prize went to medical researchers. Two Americans were honored for the discovery of special molecules.
Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were awarded the Meditin Nobel Prize 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 was said. “Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that proved essential for multicellular organisms, including humans,” the Nobel Committee said in its statement. MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important for the development and function of organisms.
The information stored in the 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 still have very different properties. Mechanisms of gene regulation play a role here, as described by Ambros and Ruvkun.
Almost a million euros for US scientists
Victor Ambros (born 1953) works at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Gary Ruvkun (born 1952) at Harvard Medical School and at Massachusetts General Hospital.
As in the previous year, the most important award for doctors is endowed with 11 million Swedish crowns (almost 970,000 euros). Half of it goes to each of the two researchers.
Nobel Prize
All recipients of the world’s most important award in 2022
Last year, the Hungarian-born biochemist Katalin Karikó and the US immunologist Drew Weissman received the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their persistent preparatory work on the development of so-called mRNA vaccines against Corona. The Karolinska Institute said their research had contributed “to the unprecedented pace of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.”
So far only a few women have been awarded the Nobel Prize
Since 1901, 227 people have received the Nobel Prize in Medicine, including 13 women. The first went to the German bacteriologist Emil Adolf von Behring for the discovery of a therapy against diphtheria. In 1995, Christiane Nüsslein-Volhard was the first and only German woman to receive this award for her work on the genetic control of early embryonic development.
The Nobel Prize cycle began with the Medicine Prize. The winners of the physics and chemistry prizes will be named on Tuesday and Wednesday. These are followed by those for literature and for peace. The series of announcements ends next Monday with the so-called Nobel Prize in Economics sponsored by the Swedish Riksbank.
The ceremonial awarding of all awards traditionally takes place on December 10th, the anniversary of the death of the prize founder Alfred Nobel. The winners of this year’s Alternative Nobel Prizes were announced by the Right Livelihood Foundation last Thursday.
Note: This post has been updated.