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Nobel prize for medicine goes to US scientists Ambros and Ruvkun

 Published: 16:45, 7 October 2024

Nobel prize for medicine goes to US scientists Ambros and Ruvkun

Scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of microRNA and its role in gene regulation, the award-giving body said on Monday.

The winners for medicine are selected by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden's Karolinska Institute medical university and receive a prize sum of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million).

As every year, the medicine prize is the first in the crop of Nobels, arguably the most prestigious prizes in science, literature and humanitarian endeavour, with the remaining five set to be unveiled over the coming days.

Last year's medicine prize was awarded to the runaway favourites Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian scientist, and US colleague Drew Weissman, for discoveries that paved the way for COVID-19 vaccines that helped curb the pandemic.

Past winners of the Nobel medicine prize include many famous researchers such as Ivan Pavlov in 1904, most known for his experiments on behaviour using dogs, and Alexander Fleming, who shared the 1945 prize for the discovery of penicillin.

Steeped in tradition, the science, literature and economics prizes are presented to the laureates in a ceremony on Dec 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death, followed by a lavish banquet at Stockholm city hall. Separate festivities attend the winner of the peace prize in Oslo on the same day.

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