Biologists win Nobel Prize for microRNA

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Two American biologists have won this year's Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for discovering a crucial way genes are regulated. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein has the details.

ROB STEIN, BYLINE: The winners are Victor Ambros, at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Mass., and Gary Ruvkun, from Harvard Medical School in Boston. They won for making a discovery fundamental to understanding how cells work. The pair identified what's known as microRNA. These tiny strands of genetic information play a key role in how genes instruct cells to make proteins, and proteins determine everything about cells, including what parts of the body they become and how they function. Olle Kampe from the Nobel committee says the discovery transformed cell biology.

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OLLE KAMPE: I think it's one of the big Nobel Prizes because it's a completely new physiological mechanism that no one expected - completely out of the blue.

STEIN: The breakthrough has not yet led to any practical applications, but scientists are still using the work to better understand the basic biology of normal cellular function and why things sometimes go wrong. Kampe says the discovery could eventually lead to new treatments for many illnesses.

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KAMPE: MicroRNAs are important for our understanding of embryological development, normal cell physiology and diseases such as cancer.

STEIN: The advance is an example of how very basic research can lead to unexpected but transformational discoveries. The pair discovered microRNA by examining a little worm known as C. elegans.

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KAMPE: It shows that curiosity research is very important. They were looking at two worms that looked a bit funny and decided to understand why. And then they discovered an entirely new mechanism for gene regulation. I think that's beautiful.

STEIN: Ambros, who's 70, and Ruvkun, who's 72, both said they were delighted by the honor. Here's how Ambros described his reaction when he got the call early this morning that he'd won.

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VICTOR AMBROS: I was astonished and, you know, surprised, delighted - everything you might expect. This is not something that I expected.

STEIN: Ambros and Ruvkun will split more than $1 million when they traveled to Stockholm later this year to accept the prize. Rob Stein, NPR News.

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