Nobel Prize Goes to 2 Americans for Discovery of Key Control of Cell's Genetic Workings

By SUSAN BROWN

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Nobel Prize goes to 2 Americans for discovery of key control of cell's genetic workings

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Two American scientists have won the 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery of a fundamental control of the flow of genetic information, Sweden's Karolinska Institute announced this morning.

Andrew Z. Fire, 47, of Stanford University Medical School, and Craig C. Mello, 46, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, will share the award, worth approximately $1.4-million, when the Karolinska Institute presents it, in December.

In 1998 Mr. Fire and Mr. Mello published a seminal paper in Nature that described how the molecule RNA, previously thought to serve only as a messenger and translater of the DNA genetic code, could actively silence genes.

They found that RNA, normally a single-stranded intermediary between genes and the protein-making machinery of the cell, can match up to form a double strand. That doubled-stranded version of RNA blocks rather than relays the message from a specific gene, silencing it in a process called RNA interference.

Plant and animals, including human beings, all control genes using RNA interference. The process is also part of our defense against viral infection and may be harnessed to correct disease-causing genetic defects in the future.

More information about the prize winners is available on the Nobel Web site.