2024 Nobel Prize Winners

2024 Nobel Prize Winners: The Physiological Society congratulates Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun on being awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

It was announced today that Professors Ambros and Ruvkun have been jointly awarded the Nobel Prize for their discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.

Responding to the Nobel Prize announcement, President of The Physiological Society, Professor David Attwell, said:

“On behalf of The Physiological Society I am delighted to congratulate Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for being jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Their work in C. elegans, a small worm, led to their groundbreaking discovery of a new principle of gene regulation. By discovering microRNAs, a new class of tiny RNA molecules, they revealed a new dimension of how gene activity is regulated. MicroRNAs are fundamental for controlling how organisms develop and function, including humans. Defects in microRNA function can lead to cancer and other diseases.

“Physiology helps us to understand how the body works in health and determine what goes wrong in disease. As such, physiology has been at the forefront of the search for how to prevent and treat diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or autoimmunity. Understanding how gene activity is regulated helps advance public health research.