Nobel Prize

Current Context : U.S. scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of microRNA and its crucial role in how multicellular organisms grow and live.

ABOUT MICRORNA

• MicroRNAs are small, non-coding RNA molecules, typically 21-22 nucleotides long, that do not code for proteins but regulate gene expression at the post-transcriptional level.
• Role: miRNAs bind to messenger RNAs (mRNAs) to either silence them or degrade them, controlling protein production in cells.
• Discovery: Ambros and Ruvkun’s pioneering research in Caenorhabditis elegansled to the identification of miRNAs, particularly the lin-4 and let-7 genes, which regulate other genes during developmental stages.

Significance: Their findings have shown that miRNAs are conserved across a wide range of organisms, including humans, and play a critical role in development, aging, and diseases such as cancer and neurodegenerative conditions.

ABOUT NOBEL PRIZE

• The Nobel Prize is a prestigious set of international awards given annually in recognition of outstanding contributions in six categories: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, Peace, and Economic Sciences
• Established by the will of Alfred Nobel in 1895, these prizes are awarded by different committees and organizations, depending on the category.

2024 Nobel Prize Recipients:

• Physics: The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to John Hopfield and Geoffrey Hinton for their pioneering work in using physics principles to develop foundational methods in machine learning and artificial neural networks.
• Physiology or Medicine: The Nobel Prize in this category went to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of