The Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun are the winners of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Medicine. A consecration for these scientists, specialists in microRNA, who have already reacted to the announcement of the Swedish jury.
It’s a surprise that crowns several years of research and hard work. “It’s huge. It’s an earthquake,” American Gary Ruvkun exclaimed this Monday, October 7 on Swedish public radio Sverige Radio (SR) just after being awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine , with his compatriot Victor Ambros, for their discovery of microRNAs.
“The dog doesn’t understand why it’s dark outside and why we’re running around the house,” Gary Ruvkun joked to Sverige Radio journalists.
Awakened at dawn – due to the time difference – by the Nobel jury, the 72-year-old biologist promised to come and “party” at the awards ceremony on December 10 in Stockholm.
“We went to the Nobel party several times,” he added. “You wouldn’t think of a group of scientists as party animals, but they really are.”
A shared emotion
The second winner of the prize, his compatriot Victor Ambros, showed the same enthusiasm. “Wow! It’s incredible! I didn’t know that,” he told the SR reporter who told him about his award, calling it “wonderful” to share the prize with Gary Ruvkun.
“We made our discoveries in our respective laboratories which contributed to our understanding of microRNAs,” Victor Ambros told Sverige Radio.
The Nobel jury clarified that the two men, who did their postdoctoral work together, then worked separately, partly focusing on different aspects.
The prize comes with a reward of eleven million crowns (920,000 euros), the highest nominal value (in Swedish currency) in the more than century-old history of the Nobel Prize.
