news bites
BMJ 2006; 333 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/sbmj.0611403 (Published 01 November 2006) Cite this as: BMJ 2006;333:0611403
The Nobel prize
Genetics again
Showing that double stranded RNA can be used to silence genes-a technique now known as RNA interference-won two US scientists the 2006 Nobel prize for physiology or medicine. Working on a muscle gene in the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans, Andrew Fire and Craig Mello showed how messenger RNA can be targeted for destruction by specific double stranded RNA. Their suggestion that this RNA interference could form a part of normal control of gene expression was subsequently found to be the case in most organisms, and RNA interference reagents have since been used by researchers studying everything from cancer to ageing (www.nature.com).
The Ig Nobel prize
An ungainly massage
Two medical case reports describing “termination of intractable hiccups with digital rectal massage” won their authors an Ig Nobel prize for medicine at an alternative prize giving ceremony at Harvard University. Researchers from the University of Tennessee and Bnai Zion Medical Centre in …
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