Author: Andrea Kasinski, Associate Professor of Biological Sciences, Purdue University

When Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun discovered a new molecule they called microRNA in the 1980s, it was a fascinating diversion from what for decades had been called the central dogma of molecular biology. Recognized with the 2024 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, Ambros and Ruvkun had identified a new kind of genetic material that transformed how researchers understood gene regulation. Like DNA, RNA is a form of genetic material made from individual nucleotides linked into chains. According to the central dogma, genetic information flows in one direction: DNA is transcribed into RNA, and RNA is translated into proteins.…