Nobel Prize for medicine goes to scientists who discovered microRNA

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for their discovery of microRNA and its role in gene regulation.

The work helped explain how our cells do different things despite containing the same genes.

With the Nobels announced this week, Nature looked at the numbers behind the prizes. The gap between doing the research and getting the prize is growing: In the 1960s, it was 14 years, while in the 2010s it was 29 years. In the 20th century, just 11 prizes went to women, whereas 15 have in just 23 years of this century so far. And more than half of winners lived in North America — as do Ambros and Ruvkun.