One of the recipients of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Victor R. Ambros, was the winner of the University of Pittsburgh’s Dickson Prize in 2009.
Ambros, who is currently the Silverman Professor of Natural Sciences and professor of molecular medicine at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, was awarded the prize for his codiscovery of microRNA, which are single-stranded RNA molecules that regulate gene expression. He shares the award with his longtime collaborator Gary B. Ruvkun, of Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
Ambros received a bachelor’s degree and PhD in biology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He then joined the faculty at Harvard University and Dartmouth College. He began working at the University of Massachusetts in 2007, where he is currently advancing his research on microRNA function.
The Dickson Prize is the School of Medicine’s highest honor and often presages other major accolades. With this announcement, Ambros becomes the 17th Dickson Prize winner to also win a Nobel Prize, and 23 recipients of the Dickson Prize have received the Lasker Award, the most prestigious American honor for medical research.