The announcement of the winners of the Nobel Prize 2024 has begun. The Nobel Prize in the field of Medicine and Physiology was announced on Monday. This year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun. The Nobel Academy at Karolinska Institute announced this on Monday.
Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun have jointly received this award for the discovery of micro RNA. The Nobel Assembly said that their discovery is important in understanding how organisms, including humans, develop and function.
This year’s award is the 115th Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded since 1901. So far, only 13 of the 229 Nobel Prize winners have been women. It is worth noting that the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics will be announced on Tuesday, followed by the Chemistry Prize on Wednesday.
Why was the Nobel Prize given?
According to an official statement, the scientists were honoured for discovering a fundamental principle that governs gene activity. Victor Ambrose and Gary Ruvkun were interested in how different cell types develop. They discovered microRNAs, which play a key role in gene regulation. It is now known that the human genome codes for more than a thousand microRNAs. MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important to the way organisms develop and function.
In this award to be announced from 7 to 14 October, the winners will be given an amount of 11 million Swedish Crowns. Each Nobel Prize can be given to a maximum of three persons, who will share the prize money. Like every year, this time also the first Nobel has been given for medicine. While the remaining five awards will be announced in the coming days.
