Undoubtedly considered one of the most prestigious awards in the scientific world, Nobel PrizesThis year’s winners will be announced from today. The first prize announced went to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun, who discovered microRNA and investigated its role in gene regulation.

Olle Kämpe, Vice President of the Nobel Committee in Medicine and Physiology, said in a statement about the award-winning work: “microRNA‘s discovery provided a new and unexpected mechanism in gene regulation. This is extremely important for understanding embryonic development, normal physiology and diseases such as cancer.he said.

What is MicroRNA?

Of course, it is not easy to explain in a simple way a new discovery that won the Nobel Prize, but in the simplest definition, MicroRNA is a genetic material in animals and plants. are small RNA structures that regulate gene activities. These structures allow a single microRNA to control multiple genes and also allow a gene to be regulated by more than one microRNA.

Ambros and Ruvkun made the discovery while examining mutated strains of a nematode worm called Caenorhabditis elegans. His work is about They started in the same laboratory 45 years ago. Later, Ambros attended Harvard University; Ruvkun moved to Massachusetts Central Hospital, but they continued their research on the subject.