M A I N   N E W S

2 Americans share Nobel in Medicine

Stockholm, October 2
Americans Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for their work in controlling the flow of genetic information. The Karolinska Institute in Stockholm honoured the pair today for their discovery of “RNA interference - gene silencing by double-stranded RNA.”

The RNA interference occurs in plants, animals, and humans. The institute said it was of great importance for the regulation of gene expression, in defense against viral infections, and in keeping jumping genes under control.

The RNA interference was already being widely used in basic science as a method to study the function of genes and it might lead to novel therapies in the future.

Fire, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Mello, of Harvard University, were born in 1959 and 1960, respectively.

“This year’s Nobel Laureates have discovered 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,” the institute said.

Fire and Mello published their discovery of a mechanism that can degrade RNA from a specific gene in 1998. Last year’s medicine prize went to Australians Barry J. Marshall and Robin Warren for discovering that bacteria, not stress, causes ulcers. — AP