UMASS Faculty Wins Noble Prize in Medicine

Craig C. Mello from the UMASS Medical School in Worcester and Andrew Z. Fire of Stanford University have won this year's Noble Prize in medicine. Their work concerns the use of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) for blocking the production of specific proteins. In addition, by blocking whole sets of genes these dsRNA's may also function in keeping mature cells in a specific developmental state.

The New York Times has an article on the award. Pure Pedantry has a clear and concise explanation of RNA interference and why this work is so important. For an evolutionary perspective on dsRNA check out the Looms post.

Posted by PWH.