American Biologists Ambros and Ruvkun receive Nobel Prize Medicine 2024 for groundbreaking work on ‘Gene Regulation’

The Nobel Assembly on Oct 7 announced American scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun as this year's winners of the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

Together, the two have been given the distinguished prize for discovering microRNA and its function in controlling the expression of genes following transcription.

Their discovery is "proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function," according to the Nobel Assembly.

Various types of cells, such as muscle and nerve cells, perform various roles even though all of the cells in our body share the same genes.

The discovery of microRNA by Ambros and Ruvkun provided new insight into gene regulation mechanisms.

The Nobel Assembly said their discovery has been crucial to our understanding of the development and operation of creatures, including humans.

Last year, the Nobel Prize for Medicine was given to American scientist Drew Weissman and Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó for their groundbreaking research that made it possible to create COVID-19 mRNA vaccinations, which were vital in stopping the pandemic.

A cash payment of 11 million Swedish kronor (about ₹8.3 crore) is included in the prize, established by Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.

The winners will get their awards on Dec 10. The Physics Prize will be announced on Oct 8, and for Chemistry on Oct 9. Subsequently, the Nobel Prize for Literature will be announced on Oct 10 followed by Peace Prize on Oct 11 and Economics on Oct 14.