Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Awarded for Discovery of MicroRNA Gene Regulation

Every cell in our body starts out with the same set of genetic instructions, or DNA. Yet only some of these genes are expressed in each cell, leading to the production of proteins that perform the cell’s unique functions. The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded on Monday to U.S. scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA, a molecule that performs this important regulatory process.

The discovery opened up a new field in gene regulation, explaining how only some of the many genetic instructions in DNA result in functional proteins in different cells. The research was initially conducted in the tiny roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans, but the mechanism has since been found in the genes of humans and most other animals.