American biologists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun have been awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

They were given the recognition "for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation".

In a press release issued today, The Nobel Assembly at Karonlinska Institute said, "Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were interested in how different cell types develop. They discovered microRNA, a new class of tiny RNA molecules that play a crucial role in gene regulation. Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans."

Their surprising discovery revealed an entirely new dimension to gene regulation, read the press release.

Victor Ambros is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts, while Gary Ruvkun works at Massachusetts General Hospital and is a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston.