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Two scientists, Victor Ambros (UMASS Chan Medical School in the US) and Gary Ruvkun (Harvard Medical School in the US), have won the 2024 Nobel prize in medicine or physiology.

They received the prestigious award for discovering tiny molecules in our cells called microRNAs. This discovery has not only changed our understanding of how our bodies work, but has opened up a whole new area of science as well. It even extends into new treatments.

These molecules, microRNAs, can simply be thought of as tiny controllers inside our cells, the building blocks of our bodies. They help decide which parts of our DNA, our own genetic material, should be active and which should be quiet.

Think of them as volume knobs for our genes, turning them up or down as needed. All our cells contain the same number of DNA letters called bases—there's about 3 billion. These tiny little molecules themselves, in fact, help control which of those letters are on or off, how loud that volume switch is, and in doing so, how our own genes behave.

This is called gene regulation and is quite important, helping cells decide what type of cell they should be. MicroRNAs also have lots of roles in hard-to-treat diseases such as cancer and neurological diseases such Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

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