Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2024

The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation¹.  Following the award, I wanted to better understand how the field evolved and the impact it is currently having.  Whilst microRNA is now a well established field and concept, a key feature of this award was that it's initial discovery in C. elegans (a 1mm roundworm) was not noticed by a broader community until the same regulatory behaviour was demonstrated to also apply to humans.  To understand both the initial discovery of lin-4's regulation of lin-14 RNA, and it's subsequent evolution into the discipline of gene regulation required some effort to combine several keywords.

Having identified >60k articles (across all publishers) that mention microRNA, gene regulation, lin-4 and lin-14 with Dimensions data², I could easily explore then using Nature Navigator (free access with login).  Here's the Nature Navigator generative AI summary of the topic:

This discovery has far-reaching implications for understanding fundamental cellular processes and has opened new avenues for research in various fields, including cancer, immune response, and molecular pathways. The identification of microRNA's intricate involvement in gene regulation has provided crucial insights into disease models and potential therapeutic targets. Furthermore, this research has shed light on the complex mechanisms underlying stem cell differentiation, offering promising prospects for regenerative medicine. The Nobel Prize-winning work has significantly advanced our understanding of gene regulation and its impact on diverse biological processes, paving the way for innovative approaches in biomedical research and clinical applications.

With Nature Navigator's topic anatomy I've understood better how microRNA is impacting medicine.  Below we can see research on cancer in general and specific cancers including lung cancer and brain tumours.

Collaborations are a key feature of Nobel Prizes and so I was interested in how closely Ruvkun and Ambros have collaborated.  Whilst both have focussed their research on gene regulation since their discovery, their co-authorship is limited and their networks have little overlap.  There are many ways we could interpret this: one could be that this relative independence has provided diversity of thinking in the collaboration around work on C. elegans the subsequent research.  In contrast to the co-authorship data, it's clear from the post award interviews that they do collaborate.

Lastly, I enjoyed learning about the different types of gene regulating RNAs in addition to mRNA including circRNAs (Circular RNAs that regulate gene expression by interacting with microRNAs or other RNA-binding proteins) and lncRNAs (Long non-coding RNAs that play diverse roles in gene regulation, chromatin remodeling, and cellular processes).