The awarding of the 2024 Nobel Prizes has begun! The first of these, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, was awarded for “the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation”.
The Nobel Prize for Medicine 2024 was won by two researchers, Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun, the Secretary General of the Nobel Assembly said on Monday, October 7, 2024.
Thus, this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine honors two scientists for the discovery of a fundamental principle that governs the regulation of genetic activity, according to a press release from .
How do the differences between cells in the human body occur?
The information stored in the chromosomes can be likened to an instruction manual for all the cells in our body. Every cell contains the same chromosomes, so every cell contains the same set of genes and exactly the same set of instructions. However, different types of cells, such as muscle or nerve cells, have very distinct characteristics. How do these differences occur? The answer lies in genetic regulation, a process that allows each cell to choose only the relevant instructions. Thus, the correct set of genes is active in each type of cell, the Foundation’s release also states.
On November 27, 1895, he completed his will in which he expressed his wish to use a large part of his fortune for a series of prizes, the Nobel Prizes. As written in his will, one part was to be dedicated to “the person who would make the most important discovery in the field of physiology or medicine”.
Since 1901, 114 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded. However, the award was not awarded in 1915, 1916, 1917, 1918, 1921, 1925, 1940, 1941 and 1942.
The Nobel Prize cannot be shared among more than three people
Why? Well, the Nobel Foundation mentions that, “if none of the works considered rise to the importance indicated in the first paragraph, the prize money will be reserved until the following year.” “Even then, if the prize cannot be awarded, the amount will be added to the Foundation’s funds.” During the First and Second, fewer Nobel Prizes were awarded.
So far, 40 Nobel Prizes in Medicine have been awarded to a single laureate, 35 Medicine Prizes have been won by two laureates, and 39 have been won by three laureates.
According to , the prize money must be divided equally between two research papers, each of which is considered worthy of a prize. If an award-winning work was produced by two or three people, the prize will be awarded jointly. In no event will the prize money be divided between more than three persons.
Alfred Nobel was particularly interested in medicine
Alfred Nobel, famous for inventing dynamite, was particularly interested in medical research. While at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, the inventor met the Swedish physiologist Jöns Johansson around 1890. Johansson worked in Nobel’s laboratory in Sevran, France for a short time that year. Nobel mentioned awarding a prize in physiology or medicine in his will.
The prize is awarded by members of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden.
