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【medical-news】2006年诺贝尔医学与生理学奖获得者
安德鲁·菲尔出生于1959年，美国公民，1983年获美国麻省理工学院生物学博士学位，现任斯坦福医学院病理学和遗传学教授。克雷格·梅洛出生于1960年，美国公民，1990 年获得哈佛大学生物学博士学位，现任马萨诸塞州医学院分子医学教授。
卡罗林斯卡医学院在颁奖声明称，今年诺贝尔医学奖获得者发现了一个有关控制基因信息流程的关键机制。人们的基因组通过从细胞核里的DNA向蛋白质的合成机制发出生产蛋白质的指令运作，这些指令通过mRNA传送。美国科学家菲尔和梅洛公布了他们发现一种可以从特定基因降解mRNA的方式，在这种RNA干扰现象中，双链RNA(double-stranded RNA)以一种非常明确的方式抑制了基因表达。
植物、动物、人类都存在RNA干扰现象，这对于基因表达的管理、参与对病毒感染的防护、控制活跃基因具有重要意义。RNA干扰已经作为一种强大的“基因沉默”技术而出现。这项技术被用于全球的实验室来确定各种病症中哪种基因起到了重要作用。RNA干扰作为研究基因运行的一种研究方法已被广泛应用于基础科学，它可能在将来产生新的治疗方法。
screen.width-333)this.width=screen.width-333" width=111 height=153 title="Click to view full mello.gif (111 X 153)" border=0 align=absmiddle> The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2006
English
Swedish
Press Release
2 October 2006
The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today decided to award
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 2006
jointly to
Andrew Z. Fire and Craig C. Mello
for their discovery of
"RNA interference – gene silencing by double-stranded RNA"
Summary
This year's Nobel Laureates have discovered a fundamental mechanism for contr
olling the flow of genetic information. Our genome operates by sending instru
ctions for the manufacture of proteins from DNA in the nucleus of the cell to
the protein synthesizing machinery in the cytoplasm. These instructions are
conveyed by messenger RNA (mRNA). In 1998, the American scientists Andrew Fir
e and Craig Mello published their discovery of a mechanism that can degrade m
RNA from a specific gene. This mechanism, RNA interference, is activated when
RNA molecules occur as double-stranded pairs in the cell. Double-stranded RN
A activates biochemical machinery which degrades those mRNA molecules that ca
rry a genetic code identical to that of the double-stranded RNA. When such mR
NA molecules disappear, the corresponding gene is silenced and no protein of
the encoded type is made.
RNA interference occurs in plants, animals, and humans. It is of great import
ance for the regulation of gene expression, participates in defense against v
iral infections, and keeps jumping genes under control. RNA interference is a
lready being widely used in basic science as a method to study the function o
f genes and it may lead to novel therapies in the future.
The flow of information in the cell: from DNA via mRNA to protein
The genetic code in DNA determines how proteins are built. The instructions c
ontained in the DNA are copied to mRNA and subsequently used to synthesize pr
oteins (Fig 1). This flow of genetic information from DNA via mRNA to protein
has been termed the central dogma of molecular biology by the British Nobel
Laureate Francis Crick. Proteins are involved in all processes of life, for i
nstance as enzymes digesting our food, receptors receiving signals in the bra
in, and as antibodies defending us against bacteria.
Our genome consists of approximately 30,000 genes. However, only a fraction o
f them are used in each cell. Which genes are expressed (i.e. govern the synt
hesis of new proteins) is controlled by the machinery that copies DNA to mRNA
in a process called transcription. It, in turn, can be modulated by various
factors. The fundamental principles for the regulation of gene expression wer
e identified more than 40 years ago by the French Nobel Laureates a target=_b
lank href="http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1965/index.h
tml">François Jacob and Jacques Monod. Today, we know that similar pri
nciples operate throughout evolution, from bacteria to humans. They also form
the basis for gene technology, in which a DNA sequence is introduced into a
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-08-22 06:36
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