Little did Victor Ambros, PhD, know when he first asked his wife, senior scientist Rosalind “Candy” Lee, on a date in 1972 that, “this would be the key to the Nobel Prize.”
Dr. Ambros, the Silverman Chair in Natural Sciences and professor of molecular medicine at UMass Chan Medical School, shared his gratitude to his wife and collaborator, as well as to the Medical School and scientific community, at a celebration of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine he co-received with Gary Ruvkun, PhD, professor at Harvard Medical School, for their discovery of microRNA.
“You all understand how these things work,” Ambros said as he reflected on UMass Chan’s leadership in respecting and encouraging collaboration and a community that supports each other.
Chancellor Michael F. Collins welcomed the festive gathering of students, faculty and staff assembled in the Medical School lobby, saying, “In every way, all of us feel like we won the Nobel Prize.”
“On behalf of our institution, on behalf of all your colleagues here, we are so excited that the discoveries you made in the ’90s have now been awarded the Nobel Prize. And Candy, to you too because we know you’re very much a team,” said Chancellor Collins.
Terence R. Flotte, MD, the Celia and Isaac Haidak Professor, executive deputy chancellor, provost and dean of the T.H. Chan School of Medicine, said he has been “incredibly impressed and actually inspired by the humility and also the genuine joy of discovery of science” exhibited by Ambros.
“I always remind people that you don’t want to make breakthroughs by doing incremental additions to what you already know how to do,” Dr. Flotte said. “Breakthroughs come from people who ask very fundamental questions and find things that are very unexpected as Victor and Candy and Gary Ruvkun did.”
Flotte presented Ambros and Lee with mementos of the often-overlooked hero in scientific discoveries, the C. elegans worm, in this situation commemorated as a cuddly stuffed animal and a pair of Worcester Red Sox “Wicked Worms” baseball caps bedecked with a riff on the Worcester “Wormtown” mascot.
“We’re not done yet, and the worm’s not done yet,” said Distinguished Professor Craig C. Mello, PhD, who was co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of RNA interference or RNAi.
Dr. Mello recalled that Ambros said humbly at the press conference the previous week that he wasn’t the one who deserved the accolades; it was just being in the right room.
“Victor, you make it the right room,” said Mello.
Mello exhorted the audience to keep Ambros’ spirit of inquiry alive, keep encouraging each other and, “make the room you’re in the right room.”
