Little Secret No More: Recent Nobel Prize laureates unveil the story of microRNAs

GENEWS

by: Allen Malabayabas | Reprimo


MicroRNAs and their role in gene regulation were not known until 1993, when scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun made their discovery. Their groundbreaking research secured the prestige of winning the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Professor Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General of the Nobel Assembly, presented the award on October 7, 2024, at the Nobel Assembly's Karolinska Institutet.

“It’s a completely new physiological mechanism,” said Professor Olle Kampe, a member of the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, highlighting the discovery’s novelty and its implicit impact on science and medicine.

The discovery of microRNAs started when the Nobel Prize laureates observed complementary gene sequences present in Caenorhabditis elegans. Together, they discovered that the attachment of microRNAs to target messenger RNA (mRNA) leads to its downregulation, thereby silencing it.

MicroRNAs have been known to regulate cell development and tissue function and are considered useful tools in producing biological markers. The recent discovery has now provided information that over a thousand microRNAs are genetically coded by the human genome.

“[The study] opened up a whole new understanding of how diseases happen, which means that we have new possibilities for reversing them,” said Dr. John Lorsch, current director of the US National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS), providing insight on the role of Ambros and Ruvkun’s research in advancing pathological diagnosis and prognosis.

Ambros and Ruvkun were the first among the twelve 2024 Nobel Prize recipients announced from October 7 to 14, 2024, spanning six major categories based on their contributions. The awarding ceremony will take place in Sweden on December 10, 2024.



SOURCES CITED

Mirabella A. (2019). microRNAs emerge as potent post-transcriptional gene regulators. https://www.nature.com/articles/d42859-019-00078-0.

NobelPrize.org. (2024). Advanced Information. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2024/advanced-information/.

NobelPrize.org. (2024). Prize Announcement. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2024/advanced-information/.

Ranganathan, K., & Sivasankar, V. (2014). MicroRNAs - Biology and clinical applications. https://doi.org/10.4103/0973-029X.140762.

Rosenbluth, T., & Taylor, D. B. (2024). Discovery in Tiny Worm Leads to Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2 Scientists. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/07/health/nobel-prize-medicine.html.



This article was originally published in GENEWS November 2024 Issue

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