Nobel Prize in Medicine Awarded to MicroRNA Researchers

This year, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is honoring two US researchers with the Nobel Prize in Medicine for the discovery of a fundamental principle of how gene activity is regulated. Victor Ambros, PhD, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts, and Gary Ruvkun, PhD, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston, discovered microRNAs, a new class of RNA molecules.

"Their groundbreaking discovery in the small worm Caenorhabditis elegans revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation. This turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans," said the Nobel Assembly in a statement.

Genetic information flows from DNA during transcription to messenger RNA (mRNA) and then to protein biosynthesis. In that stage, mRNAs are translated so that proteins are produced according to the genetic instructions stored in the DNA.

From genetic research, it is known that cells and tissues do not develop normally without microRNAs. Abnormal regulation can lead to cancer. Mutations in genes encoding microRNAs cause, among other things, congenital deafness and eye and skeletal diseases. And mutations in one of the proteins required for microRNA production lead to the DICER1 syndrome, a rare but severe syndrome associated with cancer in various organs and tissues. 

Source: MEDspace