On Monday (Oct 2), two scientists, Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in developing effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel Assembly in Stockholm, Sweden, gave the announcement.
The Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute Medical University selects the prize, which is one of the most renowned in the scientific world. The prize also includes 11 million Swedish crowns (about $1 million).
“The laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,” said the award-giving body.
About the scientists
Weissman is a Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research and the Director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations, while Karikó is a professor at Sagan’s University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States.
Kariko served as BioNTech’s senior vice president and head of RNA protein replacement until last year, after which he became an adviser to the firm. Meanwhile, Weissman is a vaccine researcher at the Perelman School of Medicine.
When contacted just before the announcement, the secretary of the Nobel Assembly stated that both scientists were “overwhelmed” by the news.
What was the significance of their discovery?
The two laureates discovered a mechanism to prevent the immune system from initiating an inflammatory attack against lab-made mRNA, which was seen as a key barrier to any therapeutic use of the technology.
Karikó and Weissman demonstrated in 2005 how changes to nucleosides – the molecular letters that form the mRNA’s genetic code – might keep the mRNA hidden from the immune system.
“This year’s Nobel Prize recognizes their basic science discovery that fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with the immune system and had a major impact on society during the recent pandemic,” said Rickard Sandberg, member of the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institute.
“Together they have saved millions of lives, prevented severe COVID-19, reduced the overall disease burden, and enabled societies to open up again,” he added.
According to Reuters, around 1.5 billion people worldwide had received mRNA shots created by German biotech firm BioNTech and drugmaker Pfizer as of June 2023.
According to the European Medicines Agency (EMA), COVID-19 vaccinations saved around 20 million lives worldwide in just the first year of the pandemic.
Last year’s medical prize was awarded to Swedish scientist Svante Paabo for his pioneering work in human evolution, which included sequencing the genome of Neanderthal DNA and finding the hitherto unknown hominid Denisova.
Upcoming Nobel prizes
The Nobel Prize in Medicine begins off this year’s prizes, followed by the physics prize on Tuesday, the chemistry prize on Wednesday, and the literature prize on Thursday.
The prizes will be presented by the Swedish King during a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death.