«For their discoveries on modifications of nucleoside bases» says the Karolinska Institutet
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine has been awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discoveries on modifications of nucleoside bases that have enabled the development of effective mRNA-based vaccines against Covid-19. This was decided by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institutet.
«The discoveries of the two Nobel Prize winners were fundamental to the development of effective mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 during the pandemic that began in early 2020. Thanks to their revolutionary discoveries, which have radically changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system, the two laureates have contributed to the unprecedented pace of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,” says the Nobel Committee. The announcement was made in Stockholm by Thomas Perlmann, secretary of the Nobel Assembly.
«The approval of two effective and safe mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 at the end of 2020 pushed the field of mRNA vaccines into a new era. The discovery that the use of modified bases in mRNA transcribed ‘in vitro’ circumvents unwanted inflammatory responses and increases protein production after ‘delivery in vivo’ demonstrates the value of basic research. The results published by Karikó and Weissman in their seminal 2005 paper received little attention at the time, but they laid the foundation for critically important developments that have served humanity well during the Covid-19 pandemic,” the explanation reads. published on the Nobel website, which underlines how «the widespread use of the two mRNA Covid-19 vaccines in recent years demonstrates the significant potential of this technology and shows that serious adverse effects of the two authorized mRNA vaccines were exceptionally rare, providing a solid foundation for future applications.”
Among the possible future applications mentioned on the Nobel website are vaccines against infections and cancer. Last year the Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded to the Swedish scientist Svante Paabo for paleogenetics, in particular for his discoveries on human evolution which revealed the secrets of Neanderthal DNA and which provided fundamental information on our immune system, including our vulnerability to severe Covid-19. It was the second award in the Paabo family as Svante’s father, Sune Bergstrom, had won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1982. The announcement of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine winner today kicks off six days of announcements. Tomorrow the winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics will be announced, on Wednesday the prize for Chemistry, on Thursday the one for Literature, on Friday the one for Peace and on Monday 9 October the winner of the prize for Economics. The prizes include a cash award of 11 million Swedish crowns (approximately 951 thousand euros). The money comes from a bequest from the creator of the prize, the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896. This year the prize was increased by 1 million crowns (about 86 thousand euros) due to the collapse in the value of the Swedish currency . The winners are invited to receive the prize at a ceremony held on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death. The prestigious Peace Prize is awarded in Oslo, according to his wishes, while the other award ceremony is held in Stockholm.
October 2, 2023 – Updated October 2, 2023, 12:51 pm
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