Stockholm, 7 October 2024 (dpa/MIA) - US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun have won this year's Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation, Sweden's Karolinska Institute announced on Monday.

"This year’s Nobel Prize honours two scientists for their discovery of a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated," the institute said in a press release.

"Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were interested in how different cell types develop."

Their "groundbreaking" discovery of microRNA revealed "a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans."

"It is now known that the human genome codes for over one thousand microRNAs."

Gene regulation ensures that each cell in the body, which all contain identical genetic information, only "activates" the information that is relevant for its type. This is the reason why cells have different characteristics, for example muscle and nerve cells, even though they contain the same chromosomes.

Born 1953, Ambros works at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, while Ruvkun, born 1952, works at Harvard Medical School and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Photo: MIA archive