Nobel Prize Goes to Discoverers of RNA Interference
October 2, 2006 by Liz Lewis
Filed under Announcements, Prevention, Science, Technology
Mello Fire
The ‘06 Nobel Prize honoring physiology or medicine goes to Andrew Z. Fire of the Stanford University School of Medicine and Craig C. Mello of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Worcester. They will split the $1.3 million prize as an award for their respective roles in the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi) in 1998.
RNAi is a mechanism that prevents genes from being translated into protein products. In other words, RNAi can be used to “turn-off” an individually selected gene. This is an invaluable tool to scientists studying gene function as it allows them to isolate specific genes of interest and control their function.
RNAi heinously more complicated than all that, but you know what you need to. Two smart guys won The Nobel Prize for discovering something amazing. Congratulations.
[tags] Nobel, prize, RNA, interference, Gene, Function [/tags]
