The scientists showed how microRNA is found in nearly all complex life forms and plays a fundamental role in regulating how organisms function. The discovery is likely to lead to new insights for medicine.
This year's Nobel Prize for physiology and medicine has been awarded to two American scientists who discovered how 'microRNA' controls the decoding of genetic information in living organisms. Studying the tiny nematode worm C 'elegans', Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun independently discovered that small sequences of RNA were essential in determining whether certain genes are turned into proteins that carry out life's functions.
Until their discovery, molecular biologists thought they understood how life controlled the expression of genes: large proteins called transcription factors determined which genes get translated from DNA into its sister molecule RNA before being turned into proteins - to make new skin, muscle, hormones, or anything else. The discovery of microRNA was initially thought to be 'an oddity peculiar to a small worm', according to Mr Kampe.
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