In 1993, Harvard Medical School Genetics researcher Gary Ruvkun co-discovered small regulatory RNAs (microRNAs), which led to RNA regulation at an unprecedented small scale.

Ruvkun received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of microRNAs, a class of tiny RNA molecules that regulate the activities of genes in plants and animals, including humans. Ruvkun shared the prize with his collaborator Victor Ambros, of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.