Photo: Faith Ninivaggi
UMass Chan Medical School researcher Victor R. Ambros, PhD, co-recipient of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, will be at center stage in Stockholm, Sweden, for a week-long celebration, culminating in the Nobel Prize award ceremony on Tuesday, Dec. 10.
Dr. Ambros said he’s looking forward to sharing in the celebration with his family and friends who will be in Stockholm with him, including his wife, Rosalind “Candy” Lee, senior scientist and first author on the seminal 1993 Cell paper cited by the Nobel Committee.
On campus at UMass Chan, the whirlwind of festivities honoring Ambros will continue with a Nobel Prize award ceremony watch party in the Albert Sherman Center auditorium at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 10, open to all members of the campus community.
A central figure in ribonucleic acid (RNA) biology, Ambros, the Silverman Chair in Natural Sciences and professor of molecular medicine, will share the Nobel Prize stage with his longtime collaborator Gary B. Ruvkun, PhD, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Ambros and Dr. Ruvkun were awarded the prize for their discovery of microRNA, the uniquely short, single-stranded RNA molecules that are now understood to be instrumental in post-transcriptional gene regulation.
“Since the Nobel Prize announcement, life has been full of unfamiliar experiences, many of which are challenging and, at the same time, joyous. I’ve been called upon to speak spontaneously before crowds, which is a very new experience. Most amazing to me has been the flow of greetings and best wishes from all quarters, including strangers!” Ambros said.
On Friday, Dec. 6, the Nobel laureates will gather at the Nobel Prize Museum to present an artifact to the museum and sign a chair in the museum’s cafe. The museum uses the artifacts in exhibits to help visitors learn about the lives of the laureates.
Photo courtesy of Victor R. Ambros, PhD
Ambros is donating an MJ Devices PPI-100 pulsed field electrophoresis controller. The device enables the detection and isolation of very large DNA molecules, accelerating “chromosome walking” to the lin-4 gene. Chromosome walking is a technique used to clone DNA to map and sequence a chromosome. A chromosome fragment containing a known gene is selected and used as a probe to identify other overlapping fragments that contain the same gene.
According to Ambros, the device was the first product of the company MJ Devices, founded by friend Michael Finney, PhD, and his brother, John Finney, PhD. MJ Devices became MJ Research, a successful producer of thermocyclers and other instruments for molecular biology research.
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Below is Ambros’ full Nobel Prize week event schedule.
Thursday, Dec. 5: Ambros will participate in the project “Help a scientist” in which students are given the opportunity to try research in collaboration with top scientists in Sweden.
Friday, Dec. 6: Nobel laureates will gather at the Nobel Prize Museum at 8:45 a.m. (EST) and present an artifact to the museum and sign a chair. The artifacts will be on display in the museum.
Following the presentation of artifacts, a press conference will be held for Ambros and Ruvkun at 10 a.m. (EST) at the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute.
Saturday, Dec. 7: Ambros and Ruvkun will present lectures together at 8 a.m. (EST) at the Karolinska Institute.
Ambros will present a lecture titled: “A marvelous unfolding story of microRNAs.” Ruvkun will present, “A vast and ancient hidden world of microRNAs across the eukaryotes.”
Tuesday, Dec. 10: The Nobel Prize award ceremony will be held at the Stockholm Concert Hall at 10 a.m. (EST). The Nobel laureates will receive a diploma and medal from King Carl XVI Gustaf.
Following the ceremony, the Nobel Prize banquet will be held at Stockholm City Hall at 1 p.m. (EST).
The Nobel Prize Ceremony and the lecture in physiology or medicine will be live streamed at nobelprize.org and YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@NobelPrize.
