2024-10-07 14:55:51
30 years ago, <a href="https://time.news/nobel-prize-in-physiology-or-medicine-is-awarded-to-victor-ambros-and-gary-ruvkun-the-new-york-times/" title="Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Is Awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun – The New York Times”>Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered short RNA molecules in the genome. His colleagues were not at all interested at the time. Today, experts around the world are developing their research, because microRNAs can influence not only human development, but also diseases.
Anyone who took a biology class in the 1980s learned the following: The nucleus of the cell contains the genetic material, DNA, and contains genes as blueprints for proteins. Researchers had deciphered how they are formed 30 years earlier, more or less like this: a copy of a gene, a “messenger RNA” (mRNA), is created which comes from the nucleus of the cell – and cellular machines build the corresponding proteins .
What the researchers had also observed was that, in addition to genes, there were also stretches of genetic material that were not converted into proteins. People spoke condescendingly of “junk DNA,” of useless “waste.” Realizing that this is not true at all, two US scientists are now awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
Molecular geneticists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun are not only the discoverers of these “microRNAs,” but they also recognized that they can have a significant influence on the reading of genes. Errors in gene regulation can trigger serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes or autoimmune diseases, the Nobel Committee has now explained. Its secretary general Thomas Perlmann says: “MicroRNAs are important for our understanding of embryonic development, normal cellular physiology and diseases such as cancer.”
Ambros and Ruvkun conducted research on small, transparent worms of the species at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital in the early 1990s. Caenorhabditis elegans. A popular model organism in molecular genetics because the consequences of each genetic change can be easily observed. The two scientists discovered that tiny RNA molecules blocked the formation of a particular protein. Their discovery was greeted with moderate interest: it was a type of worm-specific regulation, unlikely in higher animals.
What a mistake! Seven years later, Ruvkun’s team also discovered these microRNAs in humans. And it is now clear that they play a fundamental role in human development, says Nikolaus Rajewsky of the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin. Two years ago Rajewsky discovered that microRNAs significantly influence the complexity of the brain. “I am incredibly happy for Ambros and Ruvkun,” he says, “I have known them both for 22 years and they more than deserve the award.”
Thomas Thum is also thrilled that the discoverers of microRNAs are now being recognized. The director of the Institute for Molecular and Translational Therapy Strategies at the Hannover Medical School has discovered a variant in heart disease patients that causes cardiac muscle cells to grow, making them inelastic. And he developed a therapy for fatal heart failure by blocking a misdirected microRNA.
Tumors also appear to use microRNAs to spread throughout the body. And they could play a role in the aging or rejuvenation of humans. It is undisputed that Ambros and Ruvkun have discovered a fundamental mechanism that makes new forms of therapy possible.
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