Harvard Medical School Scientist Gary Ruvkun on Winning Nobel Prize

Ruvkun, professor of genetics at HMS and Massachusetts General Hospital, shared the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Victor Ambros of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School for elucidating a fundamental principle in gene activity regulation.

Ruvkun and Ambros discovered the first microRNAs -- a class of tiny RNA molecules that regulate the activities of genes in plants and animals, including humans -- in animals and demonstrated how they can can turn off genes whose activities are crucial for development.

Here, Ruvkun shares tales of his inauspicious start, scientific revolutions, and the power of C. elegans worms.

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