On October 7th, the Nobel Committee announced that Drs. Victor Ambrose and Gary Ruvkun were awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Ambrose and Ruvkun were lauded for discovering micro-ribonucleic acid (microRNA) – molecules that regulate gene expression. The American geneticists both work in Massachusetts and first published their award-winning research in 1993.
Victor Ambrose is a Principal Investigator and the Silverman Professor of Natural Sciences in the Molecular Medicine Program at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School. Ambrose completed his graduate studies and postdoctoral training at MIT before moving to Harvard University for his first faculty position. He then moved to Dartmouth before his current position at UMass Chan Medical School.
Gary Ruvkun is a Principal Investigator and Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Ruvkun graduated with his PhD in Biophysics from Harvard University and completed his postdoctoral training at MIT before returning to his graduate alma mater for a faculty position.
Ambrose and Ruvkun opened their labs at Harvard, where they worked together to discover microRNA. Interestingly, they both completed their postdoctoral fellowships in the lab of Robert Horvitz, who won the Nobel Prize in 2002 for the discovery of genetic regulation and programmed cell death. Before the Nobel Prize, they were awarded numerous accolades for their contributions to science and the implications of microRNA in medicine. They have received the Gairdner International Award from the Gairdner Foundation of Canada, the Albert Lasker Prize for Basic Medical Research, and the Wolf Prize in Medicine, among many others.
The information in our cells is similar to an instruction manual for carrying out daily functions. Each of our cells has chromosomes with the same set of genes, but our bodies make up different cell types and have different characteristics. The discovery of microRNA helps to explain the varying types of cells. MicroRNA is a class of small RNA that regulates which genes are expressed. Gene expression then dictates which proteins are made and how the cell develops. This discovery identified a new way in which genes are coordinated. The mechanism driven by microRNA was also found to be necessary for multicellular organisms. The human genome codes for these microRNAs to help an organism develop and function.
Ambrose and Ruvkun started investigating the timing of gene activation in a roundworm model known as C. elegans. They used these worms to try and demonstrate that specific cell types develop at a particular time. To further their studies, they each chose strains of worms with genetic mutants: lin-4 and lin-14. Previous work by Ambrose showed that the mutant he worked on, lin-4, negatively regulated the lin-14 gene, but how this occurred was yet to be discovered. The two began to solve the mystery. They conducted their own experiments with each mutant and compared findings. Remarkably, they found that the sequence of lin-4 matched a coding sequence of lin-14 perfectly, which resulted in the halt of protein synthesis. This discovery was published in two papers in Cell, setting the course for further work on microRNAs. This finding has since led to many successful discoveries in disease pathology and has significantly impacted therapeutic development today.
Victor Ambrose, Gary Ruvkun, 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine, University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Harvard Medical School, Robert Horvitz, two, papers, Cell
