The 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine goes to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun

The first Nobel Prize of 2024, the one awarded in Physiology and Medicine, has been awarded to Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun for the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.

What did the pools say? This year the Nobel pools had a new entry: GLP-1 hormone receptor agonists such as semaglutide. The success of Ozempic and other analogous drugs has led to the inclusion in the pools of the teams that developed these treatments. Researcher Svetlana Mojsov recently received the Lasker Prize, the “American Nobel Prize”, precisely for his work in the development of these compounds.

The pools They also included other more recurrent ones, such as the mapping of the human genome carried out 20 years ago. A long project in which hundreds, if not thousands of researchers from all over the world participated.

Another recurring theme in the last year has been artificial intelligence (AI). This also facilitates the possibility of an award for those who have worked on the integration of AI in the field of medicine. We could also find in the pools fundamental research in understanding the role of our internal biome in our health or in the genetics of cancer.

The first Nobel of the year. The prize in physiology and medicine is, traditionally, the one that opens Nobel week. Until today they had been distributed 114 awards among 227 winners (13 the latter). For now no one has won this award on more than one occasion, nor in conjunction with a Nobel in another category.

That of Physiology and Medicine It is the only award that has been given posthumously since the awards statutes were changed in 1974 to prevent the award from being awarded to people who have already died, with the exception of people who died after the award was announced. In 2011, faced with a similar circumstance, the committee decided to maintain the award for Ralph Steinman despite having died a few days earlier, becoming the first person to receive a posthumous Nobel in a scientific discipline.

In expansion.

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Image | Nobel Prize Committee