American biologists win medicine Nobel for microRNA discovery

Two American biologists have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation”, the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute has announced.

Victor Ambros, professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, and Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics at the Harvard Medical School, were honoured for unveiling “a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated”, the assembly said in a press release.

The 115th winners of the medicine Nobel, Professor Ambros and Professor Ruvkun will split the award of 11 million Swedish kroner (about £812,000).

The biologists began the work that would eventually win them the Nobel prize in the 1980s, studying the 1mm roundworm C. elegans as postdoctoral researchers in the laboratory of Robert Horvitz, who would himself would go on to win a Nobel in 2002.

Continuing their work after establishing their own laboratories, Professor Ambros and Professor Ruvkun ultimately discovered “a new principle of gene regulation, mediated by a previously unknown type of RNA, microRNA”.

Published in the journal Cell in 1993, their discovery was initially met with little fanfare, with the gene regulation mechanism “considered a peculiarity of C. elegans, likely irrelevant to humans and other more complex animals”.

Further publications from Professor Ruvkun’s research group challenged this assumption, however, with current scientific understanding indicating that “there are more than a thousand genes for different microRNAs in humans, and that gene regulation by microRNA is universal among multicellular organisms”.

Summarising their decision, the Nobel judges said, “Ambros and Ruvkun’s seminal discovery in the small worm C. elegans was unexpected, and revealed a new dimension to gene regulation, essential for all complex life forms”.

“Whenever this kind of thing happens to basic scientists, especially scientists working on the nematode, I think it’s a wonderful thing for everybody doing this kind of work,” Professor Ambros said in an interview shortly after receiving the award. “We see it as a, in a way, as a celebration not really of the particular scientist in this case, but of the way of doing science.”

“Victor has had a profound impact on our world-leading RNA community,” Michael Collins, chancellor of UMass Chan Medical School, said. “The Nobel Prize confirms what the UMass Chan community already knows of Victor’s contributions to scientific discovery and innovation.”

Asked for his first thoughts upon receiving the award, Professor Ruvkun said, “Well, just surprise and you know, ‘Oh boy, it’s going to be a fun ride!’” The growth of the field of microRNA, he said, “was an unbelievable pleasure to watch, to participate in. The talent that got attracted to the field was magnificent.”

“Nobody who knows Gary or his work could be surprised by this recognition for his research on microRNA,” Harvard president Alan Garber said. “With promising medical applications of microRNA research on the horizon, we are reminded — again — that basic research can lead to dramatic progress in addressing human diseases.”

emily.dixon@timeshighereducation.com