US Duo Win Medicine Nobel For Gene Work

STOCKHOLM US scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the Nobel Prize in Medicine on Monday for their discovery of microRNA and its role in how genes are regulated, solving a decades-old mystery, the Nobel Assembly at Sweden's Karolinska Institute said.

If gene regulation goes awry, it can lead to serious diseases such as cancer, diabetes, or autoimmune illnesses. "Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans," the jury said.

Ruvkun said he was shocked to win the prestigious prize. "It's quite a sea change," the 72-year-old professor at Harvard Medical School said after receiving the news in a call from the prize committee on Monday.

"There's already been TV crews and photographers, and 300 email messages from friends!" he said, as his dog barked at the front door with more reporters arriving.