NEW DELHI, Oct. 8 -- A muscle cell, a nerve cell or any other kind of living cell, for that matter, expresses different kinds of proteins. Yet the genetic information in the DNA of all cells of an organism is identical. How, then, does each cell know what kinds of proteins to express, so that it can perform its specialised functions?
The answer lies in the precise regulation of gene activity, which involves processes that science has been decoding over the last few decades.
This year's Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, announced on Monday, honours American biologists Victor Ambros, 70, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and Gary Ruvkun, 72, of the Massachusetts General Hospital for decoding a key aspect of the gene r...