--- title: What to Know About MicroRNA, the Nobel-Prizewinning Discovery description: The discovery by Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun may help yield treatments for diseases like cancer. canonical: https://time.com/7064822/nobel-prize-microrna-victor-ambros-gary-ruvkun/ author: Alice Park article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2024-10-07T17:37:16.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T07:47:29.006Z article:section: Health og:title: What to Know About MicroRNA, the Nobel-Prizewinning Discovery og:description: The discovery by Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun may help yield treatments for diseases like cancer og:url: https://time.com/7064822/nobel-prize-microrna-victor-ambros-gary-ruvkun/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5e1daf0db1d5a0e/698a757c9d83e88aceb9d3e6/nobel-prize.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3708 og:image:height: 2086 og:image:alt: Announcement of the 2024 Nobel Prize - Medicine og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: What to Know About MicroRNA, the Nobel-Prizewinning Discovery twitter:description: The discovery by Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun may help yield treatments for diseases like cancer twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blte5e1daf0db1d5a0e/698a757c9d83e88aceb9d3e6/nobel-prize.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # What to Know About MicroRNA, the Nobel-Prizewinning Discovery > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=c052ab6a-972a-4dfb-98f6-ecf96da413fe&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Two Scientists Honored with Nobel Prize in Medicine For Their Discovery of MicroRNA [Watch (HLS stream): Two Scientists Honored with Nobel Prize in Medicine For Their Discovery of MicroRNA](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/k6g1mtvv.m3u8) (2:16)  _Published 2024-10-07. Two scientists have been award the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of microRNA. Victor Ambros, professor of molecular medicine at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, and Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, received the prize for revealing how microRNAs turn genes on and off._  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Oct 7, 2024 5:37 PM UTC Two scientists have been award the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of microRNA. Victor Ambros, professor of molecular medicine at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, and Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, received the prize for revealing how microRNAs turn genes on and off.  by [Alice Park](https://time.com/author/alice-park/)  ## Alice Park Senior Correspondent Oct 7, 2024 5:37 PM UTC Two scientists have been award the [2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine](https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2024/press-release/) for their discovery of microRNA. Victor Ambros, professor of molecular medicine at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, and Gary Ruvkun, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, received the prize for revealing how microRNAs turn genes on and off. This isn't the first time RNA has been honored recently. The molecule has been something of a scientific darling of late: last year, Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman were [awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine](https://time.com/6319654/nobel-prize-awarded-to-mrna-pioneers/) for their fundamental discovery that made mRNA-based vaccines possible, a development that transformed the COVID-19 pandemic. Here's what the discovery of microRNA means and how it may affect human health. ## What is microRNA, anyway? The discovery makes it possible to manipulate which genes are activated or suppressed in cells. Doing so is critical to controlling the production of proteins that in turn regulate nearly all of the body’s functions. It’s one more level of genetic control that is making the next generation of disease treatments possible. **Read More**: [_FDA Approves the First New Schizophrenia Drug in Decades_](https://time.com/7024352/fda-approves-new-schizophrenia-drug-cobenfy/) Like many scientific breakthroughs, the discovery was serendipitous. “It was something so unexpected that we ignored it for a while as schmutz,” Ambros said during an Oct. 7 press conference. It started in 1993 when he and Ruvkun worked together as postdoctoral researchers in Massachusetts and published what they thought was an interesting finding in worms that failed to develop properly due to two mutations they identified. The duo each took one of the genes to investigate further, initially focusing on looking for aberrant proteins coded by the mutant genes. Normally, DNA codes that make up genes lead to RNA sequences that cells then turn into proteins. Each cell in the human body, for example, contains the exact same DNA sequences, or blueprint—but depending on which genes are turned on and which are suppressed, they take on different characteristics and functions. Ambros and Ruvkun uncovered one of the ways that cells orchestrate this complex signaling: with what are called microRNAs. To Ambrose’s surprise, the end product of the mutant gene he explored wasn’t a protein but a tiny snippet of RNA, or microRNA. Ruvkun’s work on the other mutant gene showed that microRNA attached to the RNA made by his mutant gene and acted as a monkey wrench in the protein-making process, essentially blocking its production and leading to the worm's abnormal development. The finding remained an anomaly in the world of worm researchers and was “met with almost deafening silence from the scientific community,” the Nobel Committee noted in its announcement. That is, until Ruvkun discovered [another microRNA in 2000](https://www.nature.com/articles/35040556): this time one that also appeared in mice, other animals and, importantly, humans. ## The future of microRNA About 1,000 microRNAs have been identified in people, and while knowledge about the field is still in its infancy, these small pieces of RNA appear to be involved in a multitude of important processes, from development to basic cellular functions. Some have been implicated in diseases like cancer. Understanding how they work, and how to manipulate them to turn genes on or off, could potentially lead to many new therapies for myriad human diseases. Already, researchers are testing mircoRNA-based strategies in [animals and early human studies](https://www.nature.com/articles/nrd.2016.246) to treat cancer and infectious diseases. “We know from genetic research that cells and tissues do not develop normally without microRNAs. Abnormal regulation by microRNA can contribute to cancer, and mutations in genes coding for microRNAs have been found in humans, causing conditions such as congenital hearing loss, eye and skeletal disorders,” the Nobel committee said. “MicroRNAs are proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.” ## Transcript [00:00] Nobel Assembly at Karlinsky Institute has today decided [00:04] toward the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine [00:09] jointly to Victor Ambros and Gary Ravke for [00:14] the discovery of Micro RNA and its role in post transcriptional gene regulation. [00:20] I comment a Victor Ambrose 20. [00:28] Gary and I knew we're studying interesting genes, [00:32] probably that are components of some kind of developmental clock, right? [00:37] And so we're just really curious about [00:40] what kind of gene products would be mediating this kind of activity. [00:43] The significance of this discovery of microRNAs is that it allowed us to be [00:51] aware of a very complex and nuanced layer of regulation, [01:01] whereby genes and our cells talk to each other and coordinate their activity. [01:07] Honestly, this was not something that I expected to be quite honest. [01:12] And because in my opinion, [01:15] the Nobel Prize to Mellow and Fire encompassed all these phenomena that we study. [01:21] There are a lot of awards, [01:23] but the Nobel is its own class in terms of how much attention it gets. So I don't know. [01:31] I've probably gotten ten different awards over the last 20 years. [01:34] There's never been a press conference like [01:37] this or TV cameras or you know, nothing like this. [01:42] So it's a completely different world. [01:44] And the fact of the matter is, [01:46] there's about 500,000 molecular biologists in the world now. [01:51] And there's only 20,000 genes approximately, [01:55] and that's spread out over every organism. [01:57] So the chances that somebody has worked on a gene you bump into is quite high, [02:03] but they don't know that you're working on it, [02:05] and you don't know they're working on it. [02:06] And so there's plenty of chances for surprises. [02:09] And the surprises are what keep you young in science. 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