Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman awarded jointly The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023 for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19
On October 02, 2023 Professor Thomas Perlmann, Secretary-General of the Nobel Assembly Announcement of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Karikó of Hungary and Weissman belongs from United States
In the early 1990, biochemist Katalin Karikó had understood the significance of mRNA as a therapeutic. Katalin Karikó and her colleague and immunologist, Drew Weissman’s research came to fruition in 2005 when they published a paper that investigated the impact of nucleoside modification and its effect on the immune system.
In 2008 and 2010 their research papers were published which helped fine-tune the initial discovery and helped reduce both inflammatory responses and increased protein production thereby removing critical obstacles which hindered the clinical applications of mRNA.
The first vaccines to use the mRNA technology were those made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna against COVID-19.