One day in early August in 2001, Victor Ambros acquired an e-mail from an editor at Science, asking him to evaluation two new research the journal was contemplating publishing. Ten years earlier, Ambros and his spouse and lab supervisor, Rosalind Lee, had found a wierd new type of molecule — a tiny little bit of free-floating genetic code that got here to be often known as microRNA — contained in the millimeter-long our bodies of C. elegans roundworms.
For many of the ensuing decade, they and others believed that this microRNA was an evolutionary one-off, a quirk peculiar to the lowly C. elegans. Then, in early 2000, a buddy and collaborator named Gary Ruvkun discovered one other one, this time in all types of animals, together with sea urchins, frogs, fruit flies, and people. Rather than an oddity of worm biology, these molecules, it appeared, had been each historical and in all places.
Inspired, Ambros and Lee launched their very own search, and by spring the next yr had unearthed a dozen extra microRNAs. The discovery had them using excessive by the summer season, as they took journeys to their nation home and cheered from the sidelines at their teenage sons’ baseball and soccer video games. Then got here the e-mail from the editor.
This article is unique to STAT+ subscribers
Unlock this text — plus in-depth evaluation, newsletters, premium occasions, and information alerts.
Already have an account? Log in
To learn the remainder of this story subscribe to STAT+.
