MONDAY, Oct. 7, 2024 (HealthDay News) -- A pair of American scientists have won the 2024 Nobel Prize in medicine for their discovery of microRNA, tiny genetic molecules that play a crucial role in how genes shape the body.

Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine on Monday for the discovery of microRNA, which plays a crucial role in determining how organisms develop and function — and how they sometimes malfunction.

This isn't the first time RNA has been honored recently. The molecule has been something of a scientific darling of late: last year, Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their fundamental discovery that made mRNA-based vaccines possible, a development that transformed the COVID-19 pandemic.