Gary Ruvkun, a professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at Massachusetts General Hospital has been awarded — along with his co-researcher Victor Ambros — the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of microRNA, the tiny pieces of genetic information that play critical roles in helping cells regulate gene expression and control what types of proteins they produce.
Ruvkun graduated from Piedmont High School in 1969. He was a member of Piedmont’s Troop 1, receiving his Eagle Scout rank in 1966, according to Scouting Magazine.
He received a degree in biophysics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1973. Ruvkun then went on to obtain a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University. His work in this field has garnered many notable accolades, including the 2008 Franklin Medal and the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. (UC Berkeley News, Oct. 7, 2024)
PHS grad Gary Ruvkun won the Nobel Prize for: “the discovery of microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.”