07/10/2024 – 9:01
The Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded this Monday (7) to Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA, a new type of RNA molecule that plays a fundamental role in genetic activity.
MicroRNAs “are of fundamental importance for the development and functioning of organisms”.
“A change in genetic regulation can cause serious diseases, such as cancer, diabetes or autoimmune diseases. Therefore, understanding the regulation of gene activity has been an important goal for several decades,” he added.
“It’s something huge! It’s an earthquake!” Ruvkun told Swedish public radio SR shortly after receiving the news in the early hours of the morning, due to the time change. “My dog doesn’t understand why we’re running around the house when the sun isn’t up yet,” he added.
The second laureate, his compatriot Victor Ambros, showed the same enthusiasm. “Wow! This is incredible! I didn’t know,” he told the SR reporter who broke the good news.
Ambros, aged 70, and Ruvkun, aged 72, published their discoveries about “a new level of gene regulation” in two separate papers in 1993, which were decisive.
The two researchers, who collaborate but work separately, carried out their research using a ‘C. elegans’, one millimeter, to determine why and when cellular mutations occur.
Every cell contains the same chromosomes and therefore exactly the same set of genes and information. Genetic regulation allows each cell to select only relevant information.
The two researchers dedicated themselves to understanding how different types of cells develop and discovered microRNAs.
“His revolutionary discovery revealed a new principle of gene regulation that has proven fundamental to multicellular organisms, including humans,” the statement said.
This discovery encouraged “many tests (that are) ongoing, not only against cancer, but also against other diseases (…), however, there is nothing close to a real application”, said Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam, professor at the Karolinska Institute.
– A “white year” –
Last year, the Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to Hungarian Katalin Kariko and American Drew Weissman for the development of messenger RNA technology that paved the way for the Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccines against Covid-19.
The prize brings a reward of 11 million crowns (more than five and a half million reais), which is divided if there are several winners.
The celebration of these prestigious titles will continue on Tuesday with the awards in Physics, Chemistry on Wednesday, before the most anticipated, Literature, on Thursday, and Peace, on Friday. The Economics award, created more recently, ends the series next Monday.
The Nobel Peace Prize, the most prominent, has never been so difficult to predict, with catastrophes multiplying across the planet.
Dan Smith, director of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri), is in favor of a “white year”, that is, not granting the prize, as has happened 19 times in its history, the last in 1972 , during the Vietnam War.
“Maybe it’s time to say, ‘Yes, a lot of people work very hard but without results and we need more people and world leaders to wake up and realize that we are in an extremely dangerous situation’,” he told AFP.
#Americans #win #Nobel #Prize #Medicine #advances #genetic #regulation