Victor Ambros, cowinner of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, spent his formative years on a dairy farm in Hartland, Vt. The Nobel laureate has many connections to the Upper Valley: He was born in Hanover, N.H.; grew up on the family farm in Hartland; and graduated from Woodstock Union High School before earning both his bachelor’s and doctorate degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He worked as a professor at Dartmouth College’s Geisel School of Medicine from 1992 to 2001. [content-1] On October 7, Ambros and his colleague Gary Ruvkun were awarded the prize for their discovery of microRNA, tiny molecules that play a key role in gene regulation and could lead to significant breakthroughs in medical treatments, including cancer. He and Ruvkun, while working in separate labs in the 1990s, studied how a gene called lin-4 interacts with the lin-14 gene in nematodes, microscopic worms commonly used in research as model organisms. They found that the lin-4 gene produces tiny RNA molecules that bind to the lin-14 mRNA, inhibiting its expression. The discovery reveals how microRNA can regulate gene expression, opening new avenues for research in biology and medicine. Now a professor at the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, the 70-year-old still spends time in Hanover, where he and his wife, Candy Lee, have a house. Seven Days spoke with Ambros via Zoom, where he appeared in a flannel shirt with a "Congrats!" balloon visible in the background. Lee, who works as a researcher in his lab, sat beside him. What was it like growing up on a farm, and how did it influence you? I learned how to be a do-it-yourselfer, and that's something that's been part of who I am throughout my career. I like to say sometimes: If I'm in a room with 100 scientists, I may be the only one in the room who actually knows how to milk a cow by hand. My parents, they were basically subsistence farmers. They grew all the food for us. We had pork, beef and eggs from the farm. The idea of self-sufficiency and do-it-yourself, that was part of what we experienced growing up. What happened to the family farm? Is it still around? Yeah, my mom and dad passed away about a decade ago. The farm was sold to a family that set up a bed-and-breakfast there. It's pretty cool. It’s…