WORCESTER, Mass. — UMass Chan Medical School researcher Victor R. Ambros, PhD, will share the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of microRNA, the very short, single-stranded RNA molecules that are now understood to play a critical role in post-transcriptional gene regulation.

Ambros said hearing he’d won the Nobel Prize came as a surprise early Monday morning; so much so, he missed the call at first – and his son broke the news to him over the phone.

“We get a call from my son, who calls my wife, Candy Lee, and says, ‘If you get a call from somebody in Sweden – answer it,’" Ambros says. "Because they had called him.”

Ambros is sharing the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his co-discovery of microRNA with his longtime collaborator, Gary Ruvkun of Harvard Medical School. Their discovery of the tiny bits of genetic material could one day lead to powerful treatments for diseases like cancer.

“The significance of this discovery, of microRNA, is that it allowed us to be aware of a very complex and nuanced layer of regulation whereby genes and our cells talk to each other and coordinate their activity," Ambros said.

And this isn’t the first time a UMass Chan scientist has been recognized by the Nobel Assembly. Dr. Craig C. Mello was a co-recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize for his discovery of RNA interference.

“The discovery that Victor and Gary made was an inspiration to me," Mello said. "Also, of course, Victor was my mentor, and Gary was on my thesis committee, so I knew them both very, very well, and they both inspired me for different reasons.”

“This was not something that I expected, to be quite honest," Ambros said. "Because, in my opinion, the Nobel Prize to Mello and Fire encompassed all these phenomena that we study.”

When they discovered microRNA in 1993, the implications for human biology weren’t known right away, but the panel which awarded the prize in Stockholm on Monday said the work of Ambros and his collaborator revealed a new dimension to gene regulation, essential for all complex life forms.

“At any given moment, it feels like we know most of what we need to know," Ambros said. "But that is actually an illusion that we have to consciously disabuse ourselves of and leave ourselves open for the surprises.”

The Nobel Prize award ceremony for Ambros will take place in Stockholm, Sweden, on Dec. 10.