Victor Ambros
Encyclopedia
Victor Ambros is an American
developmental biologist
who discovered the first known microRNA (miRNA). He is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School
in Worcester
, Massachusetts
.
and grew up in Vermont. He completed his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
, under the supervision of Nobel laureate David Baltimore
. Ambros continued his research at MIT as the first postdoctoral fellow in the lab of future Nobel laureate H. Robert Horvitz
. He became a faculty member at Harvard University
in 1984 and moved to Dartmouth College
in 1992. Ambros joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2008, and currently holds the title of Silverman Professor of Natural Sciences in the program in Molecular Medicine.
that they had discovered single-stranded non-protein-coding regulatory RNA
molecules in the organism C. elegans
. Previous research, including work by Ambros and Horvitz, had revealed that a gene known as lin-4 was important for normal larval development of C. elegans, a nematode often studied as a model organism. Specifically, lin-4 was responsible for the progressive repression of the protein LIN-14 during larval development of the worm; mutant worms deficient in lin-4 function had persistently high levels of LIN-14 and displayed developmental timing defects. However, the mechanism for control of LIN-14 remained unknown.
Ambros and colleagues found that lin-4, unexpectedly, did not encode a regulatory protein. Instead, it gave rise to some small RNA molecules, 22 and 61 nucleotides in length, which Ambros called lin-4S (short) and lin-4L (long). Sequence analysis showed that lin-4S was part of lin-4L: lin-4L was predicted to form a stem-loop structure, with lin-4S contained in one of the arms, the 5' arm. Furthermore, Ambros, together with Gary Ruvkun (Harvard), discovered that lin-4S was partially complementary to several sequences in the 3' untranslated region of the messenger RNA encoding the LIN-14 protein . Ambros and colleagues hypothesized that lin-4 could regulate LIN-14 through binding of lin-4S to these sequences in the lin-14 transcript in a type of antisense RNA mechanism.
In 2000, another C. elegans small RNA regulatory molecule, let-7, was characterized by the Ruvkun lab and found to be conserved in many species, including vertebrates. These discoveries confirmed that Ambros had in fact discovered a class of small RNAs with conserved sequence and functions. These molecules are now known as microRNA. In recognition of his discovery, Ambros received the Gairdner Foundation International Award
and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
in 2008. He is also the 2008 co-recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science. Ambros was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences
in 2007. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
developmental biologist
Molecular biology
Molecular biology is the branch of biology that deals with the molecular basis of biological activity. This field overlaps with other areas of biology and chemistry, particularly genetics and biochemistry...
who discovered the first known microRNA (miRNA). He is a professor at the University of Massachusetts Medical School
University of Massachusetts Medical School
The University of Massachusetts Medical School is one of five campuses of the University of Massachusetts system and is home to three schools: the School of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Graduate School of Nursing; a biomedical research enterprise; and a range of...
in Worcester
Worcester, Massachusetts
Worcester is a city and the county seat of Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. Named after Worcester, England, as of the 2010 Census the city's population is 181,045, making it the second largest city in New England after Boston....
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
.
Background
Ambros was born in New HampshireNew Hampshire
New Hampshire is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. The state was named after the southern English county of Hampshire. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Atlantic Ocean to the east, and the Canadian...
and grew up in Vermont. He completed his PhD at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...
, under the supervision of Nobel laureate David Baltimore
David Baltimore
David Baltimore is an American biologist, university administrator, and Nobel laureate in Physiology or Medicine. He served as president of the California Institute of Technology from 1997 to 2006, and is currently the Robert A. Millikan Professor of Biology at Caltech...
. Ambros continued his research at MIT as the first postdoctoral fellow in the lab of future Nobel laureate H. Robert Horvitz
H. Robert Horvitz
Howard Robert Horvitz is an American biologist best known for his research on the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans.-Life:Horvitz did his undergraduate studies at MIT in 1968, where he joined Alpha Epsilon Pi...
. He became a faculty member at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
in 1984 and moved to Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
in 1992. Ambros joined the faculty at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in 2008, and currently holds the title of Silverman Professor of Natural Sciences in the program in Molecular Medicine.
Discovery of microRNA
In 1993, while at Dartmouth College, Ambros and his co-workers Rosalind Lee and Rhonda Feinbaum reported in the journal CellCell (journal)
Cell is a peer-reviewed scientific journal publishing research papers across a broad range of disciplines within the life sciences. Areas covered include molecular biology, cell biology, systems biology, stem cells, developmental biology, genetics and genomics, proteomics, cancer research,...
that they had discovered single-stranded non-protein-coding regulatory RNA
RNA
Ribonucleic acid , or RNA, is one of the three major macromolecules that are essential for all known forms of life....
molecules in the organism C. elegans
Caenorhabditis elegans
Caenorhabditis elegans is a free-living, transparent nematode , about 1 mm in length, which lives in temperate soil environments. Research into the molecular and developmental biology of C. elegans was begun in 1974 by Sydney Brenner and it has since been used extensively as a model...
. Previous research, including work by Ambros and Horvitz, had revealed that a gene known as lin-4 was important for normal larval development of C. elegans, a nematode often studied as a model organism. Specifically, lin-4 was responsible for the progressive repression of the protein LIN-14 during larval development of the worm; mutant worms deficient in lin-4 function had persistently high levels of LIN-14 and displayed developmental timing defects. However, the mechanism for control of LIN-14 remained unknown.
Ambros and colleagues found that lin-4, unexpectedly, did not encode a regulatory protein. Instead, it gave rise to some small RNA molecules, 22 and 61 nucleotides in length, which Ambros called lin-4S (short) and lin-4L (long). Sequence analysis showed that lin-4S was part of lin-4L: lin-4L was predicted to form a stem-loop structure, with lin-4S contained in one of the arms, the 5' arm. Furthermore, Ambros, together with Gary Ruvkun (Harvard), discovered that lin-4S was partially complementary to several sequences in the 3' untranslated region of the messenger RNA encoding the LIN-14 protein . Ambros and colleagues hypothesized that lin-4 could regulate LIN-14 through binding of lin-4S to these sequences in the lin-14 transcript in a type of antisense RNA mechanism.
In 2000, another C. elegans small RNA regulatory molecule, let-7, was characterized by the Ruvkun lab and found to be conserved in many species, including vertebrates. These discoveries confirmed that Ambros had in fact discovered a class of small RNAs with conserved sequence and functions. These molecules are now known as microRNA. In recognition of his discovery, Ambros received the Gairdner Foundation International Award
Gairdner Foundation International Award
The Gairdner Foundation International Award is given annually at a special dinner to three to six people for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a precursor to winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine; as of 2007, 69 Nobel...
and the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for the understanding, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and cure of disease...
in 2008. He is also the 2008 co-recipient of the Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science. Ambros was elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
in 2007. He was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2011.
Awards
- 2002: Newcomb Cleveland PrizeNewcomb Cleveland PrizeThe Newcomb Cleveland Prize of the American Association for the Advancement of Science is annually awarded to author of outstanding scientific paper published in the Research Articles or Reports sections of Science...
of the American Association for the Advancement of ScienceAmerican Association for the Advancement of ScienceThe American Association for the Advancement of Science is an international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific responsibility, and supporting scientific education and science outreach for the...
for the most outstanding paper published in ScienceScience (journal)Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is one of the world's top scientific journals....
(co-recipient with the laboratories of David P. Bartel and Thomas TuschlThomas TuschlThomas Tuschl is a German biochemist and Molecular biologist researching RNA.-Biography:Tuschl was born in Altdorf bei Nürnberg. After graduating in chemistry from Regensburg university Tuschl received his PhD in 1995 from Max Planck Institute for Experimental Medicine in Göttingen...
) - 2005: Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Medical Research of Brandeis UniversityBrandeis UniversityBrandeis University is an American private research university with a liberal arts focus. It is located in the southwestern corner of Waltham, Massachusetts, nine miles west of Boston. The University has an enrollment of approximately 3,200 undergraduate and 2,100 graduate students. In 2011, it...
(co-recipient with Craig MelloCraig MelloCraig Cameron Mello is a Portuguese-American biologist and Professor of Molecular Medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School in Worcester, Massachusetts. He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Andrew Z. Fire, for the discovery of RNA interference...
, Andrew FireAndrew FireAndrew Zachary Fire is an American biologist and professor of pathology and of genetics at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He was awarded the 2006 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, along with Craig C. Mello, for the discovery of RNA interference...
, and Gary RuvkunGary RuvkunGary Ruvkun is an American molecular biologist and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Ruvkun discovered the mechanism by which lin-4, the first microRNA discovered by Victor Ambros, regulates the translation of target messenger RNAs via imperfect base-pairing to those...
) - 2006: Genetics Society of AmericaGenetics Society of AmericaThe Genetics Society of America is a scholarly membership society of more than 4000 genetics researchers and educators, established in 1931...
Medal for outstanding contributions in the past 15 years - 2008: Gairdner Foundation International AwardGairdner Foundation International AwardThe Gairdner Foundation International Award is given annually at a special dinner to three to six people for outstanding discoveries or contributions to medical science. Receipt of the Gairdner is traditionally considered a precursor to winning the Nobel Prize in Medicine; as of 2007, 69 Nobel...
(co-recipient) - 2008: Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science of The Franklin Institute (co-recipient with Gary RuvkunGary RuvkunGary Ruvkun is an American molecular biologist and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Ruvkun discovered the mechanism by which lin-4, the first microRNA discovered by Victor Ambros, regulates the translation of target messenger RNAs via imperfect base-pairing to those...
and David Baulcombe) - 2008: The Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical ResearchAlbert Lasker Award for Basic Medical ResearchThe Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research is one of the prizes awarded by the Lasker Foundation for the understanding, diagnosis, prevention, treatment, and cure of disease...
(co-recipient with Gary RuvkunGary RuvkunGary Ruvkun is an American molecular biologist and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Ruvkun discovered the mechanism by which lin-4, the first microRNA discovered by Victor Ambros, regulates the translation of target messenger RNAs via imperfect base-pairing to those...
and David Baulcombe) - 2008: Massachusetts General Hospital Warren Triennial Prize (co-recipient with Gary RuvkunGary RuvkunGary Ruvkun is an American molecular biologist and professor of genetics at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Ruvkun discovered the mechanism by which lin-4, the first microRNA discovered by Victor Ambros, regulates the translation of target messenger RNAs via imperfect base-pairing to those...
) - 2009: Dickson PrizeDickson PrizeThe Dickson Prize in Medicine and the Dickson Prize in Science were both established in 1969 by Joseph Z. Dickson and Agnes Fischer Dickson...
in medicine