Skip to main content
Log in

Silence of the genes

2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

  • General Article
  • Published:
Resonance Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Andrew Fire and Craig Mello for discovering “RNA interference—genesilencing by double-stranded RNA”. The Nobel Committee at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden selected them for the award for unraveling “a fundamental mechanism for controlling the flow of genetic information” that is “already being widely used in basic science as a method to study the function of genes and may lead to novel therapies in the future”. This has been one of the fastest Nobel Prizes conferred in physiology or medicine, considering that Fire and Mello published their path-breaking article in the journal Nature in 1998, less than ten years ago.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Similar content being viewed by others

Suggested Reading

  1. D C Baulcombe, Molecular Biology. Amplified silencing, Science, Vol.315, pp.199–200, 2007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. J Couzine, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Method to silence genes earns loud praise, Science, Vol.314, p.34, 2006.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. A Fire, S Xu, M K Montgomery, S A Kostas, S E Driver and C C Mello, Potent and specific genetic interference by double-stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans, Nature, Vol.391, pp.806–11, 1998.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. G Meister, and T Tuschi, Mechanisms of gene silencing by double-stranded RNA, Nature, Vol.431, pp.343–349, 2004.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. M Metzlaft, M O’Dell, P D Cluster and R B Flavell, RNA-mediated RNA degradation and chalcone synthase A silencing in petunia, Cell, Vol.88, pp.845–54, 1997.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. M Zaratiegui, D V Irvine and R A Martienssen, Noncoding RNAs and Gene Silencing, Cell, Vol.128, pp.773–776, 2007.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Utpal Nath or Saumitra Das.

Additional information

Utpal Nath is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, IISc. His laboratory is studying the genetic mechanisms of plant development.

Saumitra Das is an Associate Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Biology, IISc. His laboratory is interested in the translational control of cellular and viral RNA.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nath, U., Das, S. Silence of the genes. Reson 12, 6–18 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-007-0034-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12045-007-0034-1

Keywords

Navigation