Massachusetts
Two Massachusetts scientists receive Nobel Prize in Medicine for discovery of microRNA
Two Massachusetts scientists have been recognized with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their role in the discovery of microRNA — key to the understanding of gene regulation and potential treatments of heart disease, cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and more.
Researchers Victor Ambros, a University of Massachusetts Medical School professor of natural science, and Gary Ruvkun, a Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School investigator and professor of genetics, received the Nobel Prize on Monday.
“Gene regulation by microRNA, first revealed by Ambros and Ruvkun, has been at work for hundreds of millions of years,” the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine stated in a release. “This mechanism has enabled the evolution of increasingly complex organisms.”
The committee stated the scientists’ work “revealed an entirely new dimension to gene regulation” that are “proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function.”
In a press conference at MGH on Monday, Ruvkun called the study of recombinant DNA starting in the 70s a “revolution” and said as a young student and researcher he “just wanted to be part of that.”
In the late 1980s, Ambros and Ruvkun worked as postdoctoral fellows in the laboratory of Robert Horvitz, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2002. There they studied the 1 mm long roundworm, C. elegans, narrowing in on a mutation and gene function in the animals.
Ambros and Ruvkun continued the research after the fellowship at respectively at their Harvard University lab and Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School lab. The pair compared findings, discovering the existence of microRNA in the worms, and published in 1993 in two articles in the journal Cell.
The discovery was met with “deafening silence from the scientific community,” the Nobel committee wrote, until 2000 when Ruvkun published new findings on microRNA in another gene, demonstrating their presence across the animal kingdom.
In the past two decades, “research into the potential of microRNAs for the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease has expanded from the two original papers published by Ruvkun and Ambros in 1993 to 176,000 papers today,” MGH said in a statement.
The “unexpectedly short” microRNA, Ambros said, help regulate how genes are controlled in cells. The microRNAs “block gene expression by binding to regulatory segments in their target messenger RNAs,” MGH said.
Current research has shown human and most other plant and animal genomes contain “more than 1,000 microRNAs, which control many protein-coding messenger RNAs and may be involved in a broad range of normal- and disease-related activities,” the hospital said.
Researchers are currently conducting clinical trials involving microRNA for medical conditions including heart disease, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
Ambros said he was “surprised and delighted” to hear about the Nobel Prize at a press conference in the UMass Chan Medical School in Worcester on Monday and emphasized that studies of laboratory organisms of this kind are “critical and key and fundamental to advancing understanding of biology.”
“I think the unexpectedness of biology is probably the most important principle, perhaps, for people to appreciate,” said Ambros. … “At any given moment, it feels like we know most of what we need to know — that is actually an illusion that we have to consciously disabuse ourselves of and leave ourselves open for the surprises.”
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to two researchers, Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, who helped develop mRNA vaccines to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nobel prize announcements will continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, literature on Thursday, Peace Prize on Friday and the Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Oct. 14.
When you look good, you feel good, and it’s nice when someone notices and offers a compliment. New Bedford, take a bow. Your “beautiful architecture” has been acknowledged.
World Atlas Highlights New Bedford’s Architecture
“Massachusetts wears its history on every storefront, steeple, and weathered shingle,” says World Atlas. Heading to Massachusetts? “Pack a camera,” advises World Atlas, adding, “Wear comfortable shoes, and prepare to crane your neck a lot, because in Massachusetts, the buildings have stories they are not shy to tell.”
New Bedford is one of nine Massachusetts communities highlighted in a recent World Atlas piece.
A City Shaped by Whaling History
In telling its readers about the importance of New Bedford as a once “major center of the global whaling industry,” the piece reminds us that “New Bedford remains one of the most important fishing ports in the United States.”
Herman Melville shipped out from here on a whaling voyage in 1841, and the city’s maritime streets and landmarks ended up shaping the New Bedford scenes in Moby-Dick. Melville’s Moby-Dick is read aloud each January by members of the community in the Moby Dick Marathon.
Why Locals Sometimes Take It for Granted
Sometimes we take what we have for granted, not fully appreciating its worth to others. It’s home. Of course it’s beautiful. Beyond the beauty of our waterfront community is its rich history, not lost on the folks at World Atlas.
“That long history is still etched into the cobblestone streets, gas lamps, and brick buildings, all of which wear their years without apology,” says World Atlas.
Landmarks That Define New Bedford’s Beauty
The publication advises potential visitors to “dig into the city’s past” by visiting the New Bedford Whaling National Historical Park. It draws attention to a North End landmark, the St. Anthony of Padua Church on Acushnet Avenue.
World Atlas says the church is “one of the most beautiful buildings in the city, and a strong contender for the prettiest in the state.”
Just a word of advice. New Bedford is a nice place to visit, but not a place to relocate to.
10 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Move to New Bedford
Why would anyone want to move to New Bedford when they’d have to deal with all of these things?
Gallery Credit: Barry Richard
Buildings Featured in the New Bedford Pathways Historical Walking Tours
Gallery Credit: Tim Weisberg
Peek Inside New Bedford’s Historic Rodman Mansion
This 1833 granite mansion on County Street was designed by architect Russell Warren in the Greek Revival style. It now houses office condo spaces, but some of its former glory is still visible!
Gallery Credit: Kate Robinson
(WJAR) — A child has died after a tree fell on a playground outside an elementary school in Melrose.
NBC Boston reported that another child and an adult were also injured in the incident at Winthrop Elementary School on Monday.
A child has died after a tree fell on a playground outside an elementary school in Melrose. (WBTS)
It appeared that the tree fell from behind the playground.
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Counselors were available at the school to support students and staff on Tuesday, NBC Boston reported.
On Sunday, the Massachusetts women’s rowing team headed to Lake Quinsigamond in Worcester, Mass., for the Intercollegiate Rowing Association’s Eastern Sprints. There, the Minutewomen faced 14 teams from various Northeastern conferences, with Temple being UMass’ only Mid-American Conference opponent. A Northwest tailwind with wind gusts up to 12 mph offered a fair day on the racecourse.
The varsity eights proved to be good competition early on. The Minutewomen broke 6:30 for the second consecutive weekend, but it was not enough to land them a spot in the grand finale. Brown finished first overall in the heats with a 6:14 time, putting just 15 seconds between the top nine boats across all three heats. The petite final was just as competitive, with boats finishing within a second of each other. UMass took second place with a 6:30.19, which put the Minutewomen in eighth place overall.
California native AJ Prahl coxed the second varsity eight to a speedy 6:48.26, which landed the boat in lane six of its final. The boat’s final time was 6:50.11, landing second in its respective final and eighth place overall. UMass kept its gap behind the first-place-finisher, Columbia, under 10 seconds, and just managed to stay ahead of Cornell by a bow ball, finishing within the same second.
The second varsity four kicked off racing on Sunday in one of two heats. The Minutewomen came in with a 7:36.4, sending them to the petite final. The boat came in 10 seconds behind Northeastern and beat Boston College by just under a second. Coxswain Sara Lavigna commanded the boat to fourth in the petite final and a 10th-place overall finish with a 7:49.77, adding about 13 seconds to the boat’s earlier heat time.
New Hampshire native Meghan O’Hern coaxed the varsity four from one of three heats into the petite final. Stroke seat Anastasiia Kolesnikova led her crew to a 7:32.41 finish, holding off Holy Cross by over 16 seconds, but failing to close the eight-second gap between UMass’ and Radcliffe’s boat.
In the petite final, the Minutewomen were placed in lane four, where they improved their heat time by a second, ending with a 7:31.91 time and a third-place finish, the highest placing of any UMass boat across the competition. Cornell pushed the Minutewomen to the end, coming in less than a second behind them at 7:32.57, while Northeastern left a seven-second gap ahead of UMass.
Sophomore Mia Bierowski coxed the third varsity eight in heat two to a 7:02.61, landing her crew in lane four of the petite final. The Minutewomen rallied with a 7:06.41, landing the boat in fifth place in its respective final and 11th place overall.
The fourth varsity eight had no heats and only had a final. The UMass boat, led by sophomore Dagny Sammis, placed third out of the four boats in the category with a 7:17.14, coming in 10 seconds behind Northeastern, and leaving Boston College behind by about 21 seconds.
As the Minutewomen conclude their inaugural season competing in the MAC, they have their sights set on the MAC Rowing Championships. There, they will battle for their ticket to the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships, searching for their first appearance in the national-level competition since 2014.
The MAC Championships will take place on Saturday, May 16, on Ford Lake in Ypsilanti, Mich. The races will be livestreamed on ESPN+. The start time is still to be determined.
Olivia Thibodeaux can be reached at [email protected].
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