By DANIEL NIEMANN, MARIA CHENG and MIKE CORDER

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine on Monday for their discovery of microRNA, tiny bits of genetic material that serve as on and off switches inside cells that help control what the cells do and when they do it.

If scientists can better understand how they work and how to manipulate them, it could one day lead to powerful treatments for diseases like cancer.

The work by Americans Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun is “proving to be fundamentally important for how organisms develop and function,” according to a panel that awarded the prize in Stockholm.

This photo combo shows 2024 Nobel Prize winners in physiology or medicine Gary Ruvkun, American molecular biologist, left, and Victor Ambros, professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, in Newton, Mass. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Ambros and Ruvkun were initially interested in genes that control the timing of different genetic developments, ensuring that cell types develop at the right time.

Their discovery ultimately “revealed a new dimension to gene regulation, essential for all complex life forms,” the panel said.

What is the Nobel Prize for?

RNA is best known for carrying instructions for how to make proteins from DNA in the nucleus of the cell to tiny cellular factories that actually build the proteins. MicroRNA does not make proteins, but helps to control what cells are doing, including switching on and off critical genes that make proteins.

Last year’s Nobel for medicine went to scientists who discovered how to manipulate one of those types of RNA, known as messenger RNA or mRNA, now used to make vaccines for COVID-19.

Ambros’ and Ruvkun’s revolutionary discovery was initially made in worms; they set out to identify why some kinds of cells didn’t develop in two mutant strains of worms commonly used as a research model in science.

“Their groundbreaking discovery revealed a completely new principle of gene regulation that turned out to be essential for multicellular organisms, including humans,” according to the citation explaining the importance of their work.

That mechanism has been at work for hundreds of millions of years and has enabled evolution of complex organisms, it said.

Ambros, currently a professor of natural science at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, performed the research at Harvard University. Ruvkun’s research was performed at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, where he’s a professor of genetics.

Why does microRNA matter?

The study of microRNA has opened up approaches to treating diseases like cancer because it helps regulate how genes work in our cells, said Dr. Claire Fletcher, a lecturer in molecular oncology at Imperial College London.

Fletcher said there were two main areas where microRNA could be helpful: in developing drugs to treat diseases and in serving as possible indicators of diseases, by tracking microRNA levels in the body.

“If we take the example of cancer, we’ll have a particular gene working overtime, it might be mutated and working in overdrive,” said Fletcher. She said scientists might one day be able to use microRNA to stop such effects.

Eric Miska, a geneticist at Cambridge University, said the discovery by Ambros and Ruvkun came as a complete surprise, overturning what scientists had long understood about how cells work.

Their discovery of microRNA shocked many scientists, Miska said, explaining that such small bits of genetic material had never been seen before. The tiny fragments of RNA — the human genome has at least 800 — were later found to play critical roles in how our bodies develop.

Miska said there is ongoing work on the role of microRNA in infectious diseases like hepatitis and that it might also be helpful in treating neurological diseases.

Fletcher said the most advanced studies to date are reviewing how microRNA approaches might help treat skin cancer, but no drugs have yet been approved. She predicted that might happen in the coming years, adding that most treatments at the moment target cell proteins.

“If we can intervene at the microRNA level, it opens up a whole new way of us developing medicines,” she said.

How did Gary Ruvkun and Victor Ambros react?

The phone call from the Nobel panel is often a surprise, but there are certain signs that recipients and their families pick up on.

“Well, when a phone rings at 4:30 in the morning. … It never happens here,” Ruvkun said.

“Natasha actually answered it,” Ruvkun added, referring to his wife. “And she goes: ‘He has a Swedish accent.’”

It took a little longer to rouse Ambros.

“Somebody called my son, who called my wife as my phone was downstairs,” he said.

Ruvkun knew immediately the impact the award would have on his life.

“Well, I just kept repeating in my mind, this changes everything because you know, the Nobel is just mythic in how it transforms the life of people who are selected,” Ruvkun said. “The Nobel Prize is a recognition that’s sort of 100 times as much press and celebration as any other award. So, it’s not part of a continuum. It’s a quantum leap.”

Going to pick up his award in December will be the third time he has been to a Nobel Prize ceremony in Stockholm after attending to watch his mentor Robert Horvitz receive the 2002 award and then his buddy Jack Szostak, who won in 2009.

“There’s a trip coming up. It will be the third, possibly the best,” Ruvkun said.

Ambros said he didn’t expect the award as he felt that the Nobel committee has already singled out RNA in the 2006 prize that went to his friends Andrew Fire and Craig Mello.

“It represents the recognition of how wonderful and unexpected discoveries come from a curiosity in basic science financed by taxpayer money. It’s a vitally important, probably the most important message, that this investment really pays off,” he said.

Last year, the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine went to Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 that were critical in slowing the pandemic.

The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor ($1 million) from a bequest left by the prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.

Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Oct. 14.

This story has been updated to clarify that microRNA helps regulate gene activity, rather than carrying instructions for making proteins.

Corder reported from The Hague, Netherlands, Cheng reported from London. Associated Press journalists Steven Senne and Rodrique Ngowi in Newton, Massachusetts, and Adithi Ramakrishnan in New York.

The Twins may not have a television home for next season, but they now know that their radio home will continue to be WCCO after coming to an agreement to extend their partnership.

The Twins and Audacy announced a multi-year extension on Monday morning that will keep the Twins on 830 WCCO with a simulcast on 102.9 The Wolf and free streaming on the Audacy app for local fans. The length of the contract has not been disclosed.

WCCO has been the Twins’ flagship radio home for 53 of 64 seasons. The Twins returned to the station in 2018 after an 11-year hiatus and have been there ever since. They explored other options this offseason as their deal with WCCO expired before reaching a new agreement.

“Audacy continues to be a terrific partner for the Minnesota Twins, with an AM, FM and digital streaming presence that delivers our fans with one of the most extensive coverage maps in professional sports,” Twins executive chair Joe Pohlad said in a statement. “Baseball on the radio remains a cherished tradition in Twins Territory.”

As for a potential new television deal — the Twins had a one-year contract with Diamond Sports Group, which runs Bally Sports North — team president and CEO Dave St. Peter said on a Monday morning radio appearance that news on that could come quickly, perhaps in the next couple of weeks.

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A friend will help you move; a best friend will help you move a body. 

This was the favorite quip of J, my best friend from youth, who died in a car accident in our last semester at the University of Texas at El Paso.  

Friendships tend to grow out of shared pleasure and shared utility. But the friend who will “help you move a body” is most rare because, like the saying implies, there can be high stakes for such limitless friendship. I first experienced something close to that feeling with J.

The words “move” and “body” have different meanings for me now. Movement is now my profession. I am an animator and an assistant professor at the University of Arizona. My research is centered on the portion of the Rio Grande/Río Bravo that separates El Paso and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, footsteps from where I came of age and where I met J and scores of people who taught about humility, compassion, and the limitless boundaries of those “best” friendships. 

I have read the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo—also titled the Treaty of Peace, Friendship, Limits, and Settlement between the United States of America and the United Mexican States—and the nine subsequent treaties or conventions necessitated by the meandering river/border with two names.

Long after the 1848 treaty, the treaty named the Chamizal Convention of 1963 led to the channelization of the Rio Grande/Río Bravo that culminated in 1968. Divisions have deepened over time, separating a body of people who have resided in this region for thousands of years.

In reading these treaties, I continually trip over the word “friendship.” Ostensibly, it’s like saying, We are friends, so I’m taking your land, or, Now that I’ve taken your land, we can be friends. The treaty would draw a boundary through the deepest parts of the river channel, but the survey methods were not equitable from the start—mainly because the Mexican Survey Commission was far less resourced than that of the U.S. Geological Survey. 

I find questionable the evocation of the word “friendship” in a document that also frames the Indigenous populations of both colonial nations as a common adversary.   

The legacy of the Chamizal Convention, the Secure Fence Act, and Trump’s border wall (Nicole Antebi )

In 2021, a group of us with ties to this region formed an all-women film collective. We called ourselves “las Polígonas” (the polygons) and prioritized trust-building over any specific creative output. This felt radical and wonderful, particularly against the bleak context of the pandemic. 

Our group first met in person in El Paso to work on a project. Celina Galicia, a filmmaker in our group who recently finished a documentary titled Ternura Radical (Radical Tenderness) about Juárez activists fighting for justice in the name of victims of gender violence, took us to a park where we could easily access the river and where there was no wall, no concertina wire, and no U.S. Border Patrol agents. This was possible only because the park was located 35 miles west of the El Paso/Juárez border in New Mexico. 

One by one, we each got into the river—something none of us had ever attempted before. 

Mapping friendship in defiance of Greg Abbott’s razor buoy barrier (Nicole Antebi )

At that moment I thought about what this body of water meant to each of us and perhaps the way it observed and absorbed our struggles as well as our laughter. We made a portrait together that reminded me of a photo I once saw in a Texas Monthly article from the 1970s featuring people swimming and playing in an open channel near the International Dam. The idea struck me that this river, which has been almost entirely recast as a border checkpoint, could and does still exist as a place of recreation and pleasure.

Ingrid Leyva, another polígona, dear friend, and queer transfronteriza artist, created the seminal portrait series “Mexican Shoppers,” which complicates the way we think of the linked economies of the United States and Mexico. Our friendship is manifest in our collaborative work. We play together in this militarized space. Once, while crossing the Santa Fe International Bridge, we made a game of swapping passports again and again, increasing our speed faster as we approached the Customs and Border Protection checkpoint. Recently, we reanimated the handshake between Presidents Lyndon B. Johnson and Gustavo Díaz Ordaz following the signing of the Chamizal Convention, but in our version we make the handshake into an infinite loop mouthing the words “Acepto” and “I accept” over and over to replace and reclaim our friendship in contrast to that of nation-states and the border we know today.

The river shapes us as much as we shape the river. 

Mapping Friendship in defiance of the channelizing of the Rio Grande/Río Bravo (Nicole Antebi )

Which facial tissue is best?

What began as a makeup and cold cream remover has become the faithful companion to cold and allergy sufferers everywhere. Combining strength, absorbency and softness, facial tissue is now a must-have in homes, schools and offices.

Not all brands of facial tissue are created equally, however. Some entry-level brands may not measure up to the performance standards set by recognizable names such as Kleenex or Puffs. There are medicated facial tissues for cold and allergy sufferers. There are scented versions for those who prefer some fragrance. There are even lotion-infused facial tissues that provide additional comfort for long-haul users.

Our top pick, Kleenex Ultra Soft Facial Tissues, is a premium three-ply from one of the most recognized brands in the facial-tissue industry. It has exceptional absorbency and softness, especially for long-term use.

What to know before you buy facial tissue?

Paper quality

Facial tissue and bathroom tissue are similar in overall construction. Some inexpensive brands use a coarser paper product as the base and then only offer a single ply. Long-term use of these tissues often leads to redness and soreness. They may perform well enough for make-up removal but not for colds and allergies.

Better facial tissues offer at least two layers of material for strength and absorbency. Premium brands often feature three plies, and the base is derived from virgin wood pulp for additional softness. The overall quality of the tissue paper should be a major decision factor because an inferior product can cause a lot of discomfort later.

Strength and absorbency

One good argument for two-ply and three-ply facial tissues is overall strength. One layer of processed paper can easily disintegrate during use, but multiple layers will keep the tissue intact. Some brands can shed bits of paper lint because they are formulated more for softness than strength. This might not be a deal breaker for those with sensitive skin, but long-term users should opt for brands that can hold their own during an illness.

Absorbency is also a factor when evaluating facial tissues. The tissue must be able to absorb and trap liquid mucus. Inexpensive one- or two-ply brands sometimes make the process more unpleasant because they do not immediately absorb mucus. This is why softer two- and three-ply brands are so popular with cold and allergy sufferers. An absorbent facial tissue draws the mucus deeper into the paper, away from the skin.

Enhancements

Lotion

For cold and allergy sufferers, a lotion-infused facial tissue is a much-appreciated upgrade. The small amount of lotion adds to the overall softness of the tissue, and helps reduce the soreness and redness associated with long-term use. However, lotion-infused facial tissue is not ideal for other tasks, such as cleaning eyeglasses. Lotion-infused facial tissues can be more expensive, and the quantity may be more limited per box.

Virus or bacteria-killing agents

While not as easy to find on regular store shelves, there are facial tissue brands infused with virus- or bacteria-killing agents. These products can help reduce the spread of cold or flu viruses by neutralizing the shed virus on the tissue. Antibacterial facial tissue also helps decontaminate surfaces where used tissues have been discarded.

How much you can expect to spend on facial tissue

Most brands of facial tissues are affordable. An inexpensive box of one- or two-ply tissues can cost less than $1 and are often sold in bulk for a significant discount. The overall quality is variable, however. For regular home or office use, expect to pay around $3 for a box of unenhanced two- or three-ply facial tissues from recognizable brands. Premium brands with exceptional three-ply softness and absorbency cost a dollar or two more per box, while facial tissues enhanced with lotion or antibacterial/antiviral agents can average around $6 a box.

Facial tissue FAQ

Are facial tissues safe for a septic system?

A. Most facial tissues do not break down as easily as toilet tissues. You can flush a few facial tissues down the toilet in an emergency, but they will eventually start to clog a septic system before they disintegrate completely.

Are there facial tissues with virus-killing properties?

A. While many facial tissues are not treated with anything more powerful than skin lotion, there are some brands that do contain an effective virus-killing agent. This information should be included on the product’s packaging.

What’s the best facial tissue to buy?

Top facial tissue

Kleenex Ultra Soft Facial Tissues

What you need to know: These super-soft facial tissues are ideal for cold and allergy sufferers who need the absorbency and strength of a three-ply product.

What you’ll love: The sturdy three-ply construction has an exceptionally soft texture, ideal for sensitive skin. The very absorbent material is great for allergy symptoms (runny nose, frequent sneezing).

What you should consider: They can shed material during use.

Top facial tissue for the money

Amazon Basics Facial Tissues

What you need to know: These value-priced facial tissues work best as “everyday” products in the office, guest room, bathroom or bedroom.

What you’ll love: They are budget-friendly, especially in bulk. They are produced from recycled or sustainable sources, and the two-ply construction comes in attractive packaging.

What you should consider: They are not as soft on the skin as some other brands and generate significant lint.

Worth checking out

Puffs Plus Lotion Facial Tissues

What you need to know: While standard facial tissues can irritate the skin over time, these soft lotion-infused facial tissues from a trusted brand are designed to reduce soreness.

What you’ll love: The infused lotion protects sensitive or raw skin. They’re also very soft.

What you should consider: There are a limited number of tissues per box. Lotion-infused tissues cannot be used to clean glasses.

Prices listed reflect time and date of publication and are subject to change.

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