This year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman for their discoveries that led to the development of a vaccine against Covid-19.
“The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Katalin Carico and Drew Weissman for their discoveries related to nucleoside base modifications that have enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19,” the organization said.
“The discoveries of two Nobel laureates played a fundamental role in the development of effective mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 during the pandemic that began in early 2020. Thanks to their groundbreaking discoveries, which fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system, laureate scientists have contributed to an unprecedented pace of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health of our time,” the Nobel Assembly said in a statement.
The two researchers observed that dendritic cells recognize the mRNA “in vitro” as a foreign substance, which leads to its activation and the release of inflammatory signaling molecules. They wondered why mRNA transcribed “in vitro” was considered foreign, while mRNA from mammalian cells did not produce the same response.
The scientists will share a prize of 11 million Swedish kronor (equivalent to 823 million euros).
Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam, who was on the panel that selected the winners, said that “in terms of saving lives, especially early in the pandemic, the discovery they made was very important.”
The 2022 Medicine Prize was awarded to Swede Svante Pääbo for sequencing the genome of Neanderthals, an extinct relative of modern humans, and for discovering a previously unknown human relative, the Denisovans.
The 2023 Nobel Prize season kicked off this Monday with the announcement of the Medicine Prize and will run until the 9th when the Economics Prize is announced.
During the week, the winners of the physics (Tuesday), chemistry (Wednesday), literature (Thursday) and peace (Friday) prizes will be announced. Finally, the winner in the Economic Sciences field will be announced on the 9th.