Rosalind Lee
The first Rosalind I want to talk about is Rosalind Lee. She is a biomedical scientist known for her research on microRNAs. MicroRNAs are short pieces of non-coding RNA that can bind to messenger RNA (mRNA), the transcript of DNA. This allows microRNAs to regulate the production of proteins in the cell. This could provide important new insights, for example into the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. In 1993, the pioneering study that described this process for the first time in the worm C. elegans was published in the renowned journal cell. Rosalind was the first author of this article and Victor Ambros is the last author.
In science, the first author is usually the person who does most of the laboratory work and writes the publication. The last author is usually the project supervisor, the person who leads the research group and the corresponding author for other scientists’ questions. Depending on the research area and project, the first or last author may have made the most significant intellectual contribution.
Controversy
Now let’s move on to the recent Nobel Prize controversy. Rosalind Lee was the lead author of the main article cited in awarding the award to her husband, Victor Ambros. However, she was not recognized as an award winner. A maximum of three winners per category can be appointed annually, and the work of Gary Rufkun, who was also awarded, played a key role. There were also multiple co-authors on his manuscript, which would otherwise have resulted in too many candidates. However, this is unusual, as since 1993 Rosalind Lee has co-authored many of the articles cited by the committee as the basis for the Ambrose Prize, including his five most cited articles in scholarly journals. Post a A cheerful picture Of the spouses on
