Listen to Story On October 7, the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun "for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation." Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun unexpectedly discovered microRNA , a molecule found in our cells, which has since provided scientists valuable insights into its role in cancer. This discovery which was made in 1993 has since been the foundation of several studies for scientists in genetic research, especially in diagnosing and treating cancer.
WHAT IS MICRORNA? It all lies in our genes. They are like instructions inside our bodies that tell our cells how to work. They tell your body what your eye colour should be, your height or even how your body should fight sickness.
Genes control how our bodies grow, develop, and function every day. They are made up of DNA and determine our traits and how our personality will look like. Deeper into genes is DNA which acts like a blueprint holding all the instructions for how our body works.
Meanwhile, RNA (Ribonucleic acid) a molecule, is a helper that reads the instructions from DNA and carries them to make proteins. MicroRNAs are a type of RNA (Ribonucleic acid) that influence several complex functions in the body. (Photo: Getty Images) Think of DNA as the recipe book, and RNA as the cook that follows the recipes to make things happen.
But a type of RNA called the microRNA is different. It h.
