Scientists Victor Ambros and Gary Ruvkun won the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of microRNA and its role in gene regulation, the award-giving body said on Monday.

The winners for medicine are selected by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute Medical University and receive a prize sum of 11 million Swedish crowns ($1.1 million).

As every year, the medicine prize is the first in the crop of Nobels, arguably the most prestigious prizes in science, literature and humanitarian endeavour, with the remaining five set to be unveiled over the coming days.

Created in the will of Swedish dynamite inventor and businessman Alfred Nobel, the prizes have been awarded for breakthroughs in science, literature and peace since 1901, while economics is a later addition.

Different institutions award the prizes in the various fields, with Peace being the only one awarded in Oslo rather than Stockholm, possibly as a result of the political union that existed between the two Nordic countries when Nobel penned his will.

Last year’s medicine prize was awarded to the runaway favourites Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian scientist, and U.S. colleague Drew Weissman, for discoveries that paved the way for COVID-19 vaccines that helped curb the pandemic.

Past winners of the Nobel medicine prize include many famous researchers such as Ivan Pavlov in 1904, most known for his experiments on behaviour using dogs, and Alexander Fleming, who shared the 1945 prize for the discovery of penicillin.

Steeped in tradition, the science, literature and economics prizes are presented to the laureates in a ceremony on Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel’s death, followed by a lavish banquet at Stockholm city hall. Separate festivities attend the winner of the peace prize in Oslo on the same day.

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Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for providing Rs 30 billion and a $400 million currency swap to help with Maldives’ foreign exchange problems. During their meeting in New Delhi, India also granted a $100 million Treasury bills rollover. Both leaders discussed further financial collaborations and digital payment connections between India and the Maldives.