The Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology(https://www.nobelprize.org/) was awarded this year for the discovery of microRNAs - small ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules that can interact with messenger RNA and block the synthesis of the protein it encodes. Hundreds of microRNAs that modulate protein expression are produced in human cells. It has been shown that a single type of microRNA can block the synthesis of several proteins, and that the translation of a protein can be blocked by several microRNA molecules(https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2024/press-release/). Understanding how microRNAs function and interact to ensure proper cell function, and how they are dysregulated in different pathologies, is a new area of impact in biomedical research.
