Two United States scientists, Andrew Fire and Craig Mello, were on Monday awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine for their pioneering work in molecular biology and genetic information, the Nobel jury said.
”This year’s Nobel laureates have discovered a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information,” the jury said.
Their discovery, called RNA interference and published in 1998, is important in the defence against viruses and paves the way for novel therapies to reverse crippling disease.
Fire, born in 1959, is a professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, while Mello, born in 1960, is professor of molecular medicine at Massachusetts Medical School.
Last year, the prize went to Australians Barry Marshall and Robin Warren for their pioneering research on stomach ulcers, overturning conventional wisdom to prove they are caused by bacteria and not spicy food or stress, and best treated with antibiotics.
The Nobel prizes, founded by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, were first awarded in 1901.
This year’s laureates will receive a gold medal and share 10 million Swedish kronor ($1,37-million).
The formal awarding of the prizes will take place in Stockholm on December 10.
The Medicine Prize kicks off the coveted Nobel awards. The Physics prize will be announced on Tuesday and Chemistry on Wednesday. The Economics prize, awarded by Sweden’s central bank, the Riksbank, is scheduled for October 9.
The Literature prize is traditionally awarded on a Thursday, though the actual date is only announced 48 hours in advance. It is expected to be announced on either October 5 or October 12.
The announcement of the Peace Prize will wrap up the Nobel season on October 13. – AFP