The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024 has been awarded to US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their groundbreaking research on microRNA. Their discoveries have shed light on the mechanisms that govern the development of complex life on Earth and the intricate composition of the human body, which consists of diverse tissues, reports BBC.
Groundbreaking Discovery
Every cell in the human body contains the same raw genetic information, locked in our DNA.
However, despite starting with identical genetic information, the human body’s cells are wildly different in form and function.
The electrical impulses of nerve cells are distinct from the rhythmic beating of heart cells. The metabolic powerhouse of a liver cell is distinct from a kidney cell, which filters urea out of the blood. The light-sensing abilities of cells in the retina are different in skillset to white blood cells that produce antibodies to fight infection.
So much variety can arise from the same starting material because of gene expression.
The US scientists were the first to discover microRNAs and how they exerted control on how genes are expressed differently in different tissues.
The medicine and physiology prize winners are selected by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute.
They said: “Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans.
Gene Regulation
Prof Ambros, 70, works at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Prof Ruvkun, 72, is a professor at Harvard Medical School.
Both conducted their research on the nematode worm – C. elegans.
They experimented on a mutant form of the worm that failed to develop some cell types, and eventually homed in on tiny pieces of genetic material or microRNAs that were essential for the worms’ development.
This is how it works:
- A gene or genetic instruction is contained within our DNA
- Our cells make a copy, which is called messenger RNA or simply mRNA (you’ll remember this from Covid vaccines)
- This travels out of the cell’s nucleus and instructs the cell’s protein-making factories to start making a specific protein
- But microRNAs get in the way by sticking to the messenger RNA and stop it from working
- In essence the microRNA has prevented the gene from being expressed in the cell
Further work showed this was not a process unique to worms, but was a core component of life on Earth.
Prof Janosch Heller, from Dublin City University, said he was “delighted” to hear the prize had gone to Profs Ambros and Ruvkun.
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Source: BBC
