Nobel Prize Goes to MicroRNA Researchers

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Lubkun for their work on microRNAs.

Their discoveries help explain how complex life arose on Earth and how the human body is made up of so many different tissues.

MicroRNAs influence how genes – the blueprints of life – are regulated in organisms, including us.

The winner will share a prize worth 11 million Swedish kronor (£810,000).

Every cell in the human body contains the same raw genetic information stored in DNA.

Although the cells in the human body start with identical genetic information, they vary greatly in shape and function.

The electrical impulses of a nerve cell are different from the rhythmic beating of a heart cell. Liver cells, the powerhouses of metabolism, are different from kidney cells, which filter urea from the blood. The light-sensing ability of retinal cells is different from the ability of white blood cells to produce antibodies to fight infection.

Gene expression plays a role so much diversity can arise from the same raw materials.

US scientists were the first to discover microRNAs and how they control the differential expression of genes in different tissues.

The winners of the Prize in Physiology or Medicine are selected by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden.

They stated: “Their groundbreaking discovery revealed an entirely new principle of gene regulation that may prove essential for multicellular organisms, including humans.

“More than 1,000 microRNAs are now known to be encoded in the human genome.”

Without the ability to control gene expression, all cells in an organism would be identical. Thus, microRNAs have contributed to the evolution of complex life forms.

Aberrant regulation by microRNAs may contribute to cancer and some diseases such as congenital deafness and bone diseases.

A severe example is DICER1 syndrome, which causes cancer in various tissues and is caused by mutations affecting microRNAs.

Professor Ambros (70) works at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, while Professor Lubkun (72) is a professor at Harvard Medical School.

Both researched the roundworm C. elegans.

They experimented with mutants of the worm that were unable to develop certain cell types and eventually discovered small pieces of genetic material – microRNAs – that are essential for the worm’s development.

Here’s how it works:

Our DNA contains genes or genetic instructions.
Our cells make copies of them called messenger RNA or simply mRNA (you remember this from the COVID-19 vaccine, right?).
This travels from the cell nucleus and tells the cell’s protein factories to start producing certain proteins.
But microRNAs get in the way by sticking to the messenger RNA and impairing its function.
Essentially, the microRNAs interfered with the expression of genes in the cells.
Further research showed that this was not a process limited to worms, but a central part of life on Earth.

Professor János Höller of Dublin City University said he was “very happy” to hear that the prize had been awarded to Professor Ambros and Professor Lubkun.

“Their pioneering work in the field of gene regulation by microRNAs has paved the way for groundbreaking research into new treatments for serious diseases such as epilepsy, but has also opened our eyes to the incredible mechanisms that tightly control what goes on inside our cells.”

Previous Winners

2023 – Katalin Karikko and Drew Weissman, developed the technology that led to the mRNA Covid vaccine.

2022 – Svante Paabo, for his work on human evolution.

2021 – David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their work on how the body senses touch and temperature.

2020 – Michael Houghton, Harvey Alter, and Charles Rice for the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.

2019 – Sir Peter Ratcliffe, William Kaelin, and Greg Semenza discovered how cells sense and adapt to oxygen levels.

2018 – James P. Allison and Tasuku Honjo, discovered how to harness the body’s immune system to fight cancer.

2017 – Jeffrey Hall, Michael Rosbash, and Michael Young deciphered how the body maintains circadian rhythms or internal clocks.

2016 – Yoshinori Ohsumi, who discovered how cells can stay healthy by recycling waste products.