Andrew Z. Fire, a professor in Stanford University School of Medicine's Department of Pathology and Genetics, and Craig C. Mello, professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, have won this year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for uncovering the mechanism of RNA interference, a discovery that "heralded the start of a new research field," according to the Nobel Academy.
"They started a revolution with the discovery of RNA interference (RNAi)," Nobel Laureate Philip Sharp, who won the prize in 1993 and studies the interference role of microRNA at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told The Scientist. Sharp said Fire, Mello, and their colleagues' landmark Nature study in 1998 -- which has been cited more than 2,500 papers, according to Web of Science (Thomson Scientific) -- not only launched a new field in RNA research, but also has had "profound impacts" on the understanding of gene ...
