A Bay Area-born Harvard professor was just awarded the Nobel Prize in medicine. Gary Ruvkun and Victor Ambros were both awarded the honor for their discovery of MicroRNAs in the early 90s. The tiny molecules regulate the activities of genes in humans, plants and other animals. Ruvkun was born in Berkeley and is a Cal grad.

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.

After earning his B.A. at Berkeley, Ruvkun obtained a Ph.D. in biophysics from Harvard University. His work in this field has garnered many notable accolades, including the 2008 Franklin Medal and the 2015 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences.