Dear Members of the HMS and HSDM Community:
It is with tremendous excitement and pride that I write to congratulate Gary Ruvkun on winning the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Ruvkun, PhD ’82, professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and an investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital, is being recognized for his discovery of microRNAs and their role in post-transcriptional gene regulation. He shares the award with Victor Ambros, a developmental biologist and professor at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.
Research by Ruvkun and Ambros illuminated the fundamental importance of microRNA, a class of tiny RNA molecules that regulate the activities of target genes in plants and animals and play a central role in human development and disease. Together, their contributions have initiated a revolution in RNA medicine, the benefits of which will endure for years to come.
The discovery of microRNAs and their function can be traced back to the late 1980s, when, as postdoctoral fellows in the lab of Bob Horvitz at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Ruvkun and Ambros began to study lin-4 and lin-14 genes that regulate developmental timing in the nematode C. elegans. It turned out that this small worm would catalyze a big breakthrough. Ruvkun’s and Ambros’ tireless efforts to investigate the function of these two genes revealed a new principle of gene regulation, mediated by a previously unknown type of RNA: microRNA.
Recent studies have shown that the human genome codes for over 1,000 microRNAs (or miRNAs) that may control a majority of our genes. Today, miRNAs are implicated in viral pathogenesis, the regulation of neural function and disease, cancer, and the transition from totipotent stem cells to differentiated cells. Heart disease therapies based on microRNA regulation are already in clinical trials.
No stranger to illustrious accolades, Ruvkun — along with Ambros and David Baulcombe of the University of Cambridge in the U.K. — received the 2008 Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research, one of the highest honors in biomedical science. He has also received the 2008 Benjamin Franklin Medal, 2008 Canada Gairdner International Award, 2012 Dr. Paul Janssen Award for Biomedical Research, 2014 Gruber Genetics Prize, 2015 Breakthrough Prizes in Life Sciences, 2016 March of Dimes Prize, and 2008 Warren Triennial Prize from Mass General.
Ruvkun embodies the very best of the HMS and Mass General communities, and we are so proud to count him as a colleague and — most notably — a delightful friend, well-known and enjoyed for his wry humor and wit.
I invite you to watch the livestream of the Mass General press conference in celebration of Dr. Ruvkun’s achievement this morning at 10:30 a.m. ET.
Please join me in congratulating Gary Ruvkun and his fellow laureate Victor Ambros for this historic recognition of their transformative achievements.
Sincerely,
George Q. Daley
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
Harvard University