RNA interference discoverers win Nobel Prize 2/10/06. By the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute Andrew Fire and Craig Mello win the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Andrew Fire and Craig Mello have been awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of 'RNA interference – gene silencing by double-stranded RNA' in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans.

RNA interference is now seen as a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information. Our genome operates by sending instructions for the manufacture of proteins from DNA in the nucleus of the cell to the protein synthesising machinery in the cytoplasm.

These instructions are conveyed by messenger RNA (mRNA). In 1998, Fire and Mello published their discovery of a mechanism that can degrade mRNA from a specific gene. This mechanism, RNA interference, is activated when RNA molecules occur as double-stranded pairs in the cell. Double-stranded RNA activates biochemical machinery that degrades those mRNA molecules carrying a genetic code identical to that of the double-stranded RNA.

When such mRNA molecules disappear, the corresponding gene is silenced and no protein of the encoded type is made.

RNA interference occurs in plants, animals and humans. It is of great importance for the regulation of gene expression, participates in defence against viral infections, and keeps jumping genes under control. RNA interference is already being widely used in basic science as a method to study the function of genes and it may lead to novel therapies in the future.

Adapted from a news release by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute.

References

Fire A et al. Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans . Nature 1998;391(6669):806-11.

Further reading

Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute

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