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Get to Know the Mass General Brigham Nobel Prize Winners

4 minute read
A collage of various Nobel Prize winners from MGH and BWH, as well as several science graphics

Gary Ruvkun, PhD, an investigator in Molecular Biology at Massachusetts General Hospital and professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School, received the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine during a ceremony in Sweden on December 10.

Ruvkun is the latest in long line of researchers from Mass General Brigham to receive the Nobel Prize.

How well do you know him and Mass General Brigham’s other Nobel Prize winners?

Take this quick quiz to find out.

Question 1

Gary Ruvkun, PhD

After six months of traveling through Latin America in the mid-1970s after college, 2024 Nobel Prize recipient Gary Ruvkun, PhD, was inspired to pursue a career in science after spending a day reading what magazine?

A. National Geographic

B. Scientific American

C. Popular Mechanics

D. Consumer Reports

B. Scientific American

“When I was in Cochabamba, Bolivia, I was bored for a day with travel,” Ruvkun recalls. “So, I spent a day reading Scientific American, then a monthly magazine read by the general public but written by major scientists (it is no longer like this today), and it was really a good day. And I said to myself, ‘You know what? Maybe I'll go to graduate school.’’’

Question 2

William G. Kaelin Jr., MD

William G. Kaelin Jr., MD, a physician-investigator from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, received the 2019 Nobel Prize for discoveries related to how cells sense and adapt to what?

A. Viruses

B. Bacteria

C. Inflammatory Cytokines

D. Oxygen

D. Oxygen

Kaelin and colleagues identified a molecular machinery that regulates the activity of genes in response to varying levels of oxygen. The discoveries may lead to new treatments of anemia, cancer and many other diseases.

Question 3

From left to right: George Minot, MD, and William Murphy, MD

Mass General affiliated physician George Minot, MD, and BWH-affiliated physician William Murphy, MD, were named co-recipients of the 1934 Nobel Prize for identifying a curative dietary treatment for pernicious anemia that heavily featured which food?

A. Citrus Fruits

B. Leafy Greens

C. Liver

D. Whole Grains

C. Liver

Minot and Murphy found that if patients with pernicious anemia ate abundant amounts of liver daily, their condition improved, turning a once fatal condition into a manageable disorder. Their discovery also shed light on the cause of pernicious anemia, which is a shortage of vitamin B12.

Question 4

From left to right: John Pastore, James Muller, David Greer, Eugene Chazov, Bernard Lown, Eric Chivian and Herbert Abrams. Picture taken in Oslo Norway, 1985 when the Nobel Prize was awarded

In 1985, three physicians associated with BWH and MGH received the Nobel Prize in a category other than Physiology and medicine. In which category were Herbert Abrams, MD, Bernard Lown, MD and James Muller, MD, recognized by the Nobel committee?

A. Peace

B. Chemistry

C. Literature

D. Physics

A. Peace

Abrams, Lown and Muller were recognized with the 1985 Nobel Peace Prize for founding the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW), an organization with 28,000 members in the United States and 60,000 in the Soviet Union. IPPNW held annual congresses to tell the world about the consequences of nuclear war.

Question 5

Joseph E. Murray, MD

The 1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine was awarded to BWH physician Joseph E. Murray, MD, for his work in advancing the science of organ and cell transplantation. In 1954, Murray was part of the first successful organ transplant between two identical twins. What organ was transplanted?

A. Heart

B. Liver

C. Kidney

D. Lungs

C. Kidney

Using radiotherapy and immunosuppressants to prevent organ rejection, Murray and colleagues were able to successfully transplant a kidney from one identical twin to his brother, who was suffering from kidney disease.