STOCKHOLM – Two researchers working in Massachusetts have been awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine.

MicroRNA

Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were honored Monday for their discovery of microRNA, a fundamental principle governing how gene activity is regulated.

The Nobel Assembly said that their discovery is “proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.”

Victor Ambros   

Ambrose performed the research that led to his prize at Harvard University. 

He is currently a professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester. Ambrose was born in Hanover, New Hampshire. He earned his PhD from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)  in 1979.

Gary Ruvkun  

Ruvkin’s research was performed at Massachusetts General Hospital and the Harvard Medical School, where he’s a professor of genetics, said Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General of the Nobel Committee.

Ruvkin was born in Berkeley, California. He earned his PhD from Harvard in 1982.

Nobel Prizes

Last year, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine went to Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 that were critical in slowing the pandemic.

The prize carries a cash award of $1 million from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.

The announcement launched this year’s Nobel prizes award season.

Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Oct. 14.

The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.

Associated Press writers Daniel Niemann and Mike Corder contributed to this report.