US duo win Nobel for gene regulation breakthrough

AFP | Stockholm                                                    

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US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the Nobel Prize in Medicine yesterday for their discovery of microRNA and its role in how genes are regulated, solving a decades-old mystery, the Nobel Assembly at Sweden’s Karolinska Institute said.

If gene regulation goes awry, it can lead to serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or autoimmune illnesses.

“Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans,” the jury said. Ruvkun said he was shocked to win the prestigious prize.

“It’s quite a sea change,” the 72-year-old professor at Harvard Medical School told AFP after receiving the news in a call from the prize committee in the early hours of yesterday. “I’ve won other awards in the past, but those were very quiet in comparison.”

“There’s already been TV crews and photographers, and 300 email messages from friends!” he said, as his dog barked at the front door with more reporters arriving.

Ruvkun shared that he and Ambros are “buddies” and had a congratulatory video call that morning. “We just FaceTimed to highfive.

We’ve been friends for years.” Ruvkun told Swedish public radio SR he looked forward to the Nobel gala banquet on December 10 in Stockholm, where the laureates will receive their prizes from the hands of Sweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf.