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Oct 2, 2023 · Biochemist Katalin Karikó and immunologist Drew Weissman won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Monday for their foundational research showing that chemical modifications to the...
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This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to biochemist Katalin Karikó and immunologist Drew Weissman for discoveries that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
The vaccines have been administered billions of times, saved millions of lives and prevented millions of cases of severe COVID-19, said the Nobel committee.
Karikó, who is at Szeged University in Hungary, and Weissman, at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia (UPenn), paved the way for the vaccines’ development by finding a way to deliver genetic material called messenger RNA into cells without triggering an unwanted immune response.
They will each receive an equal share of the prize, which totals 11 million Swedish krona (US$1 million).
Karikó is the 13th female scientist to win a Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology (see ‘Nobel imbalance’). She was born in Hungary, and moved to the United States in the 1980s. “Hopefully, this prize will inspire women and immigrants and all of the young ones to persevere and be resilient. That’s what I hope,” she tells Nature.
The COVID-19 vaccines developed by Moderna and the Pfizer–BioNTech collaboration deliver mRNA that instructs cells to create copies of a protein that is found on SARS-CoV-2 virus particles, called the spike protein. This stimulates the body to make antibodies that target the protein, as well as triggering other immune responses.
The tangled history of mRNA vaccines
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Katalin "Kati" Karikó (Hungarian: Karikó Katalin, pronounced [ˈkɒrikoː ˌkɒtɒlin]; born 17 January 1955) is a Hungarian-American biochemist who specializes in ribonucleic acid -mediated mechanisms, particularly in vitro-transcribed messenger RNA (mRNA) for protein replacement therapy.
Oct 2, 2023 · Oct 2, 2023 1:13 PM. Katalin Karikó’s Nobel Prize Marks the Beginning of an mRNA Vaccine Revolution. Nobel Prize winners Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman pioneered the technology that...
Oct 2, 2023 · Researchers Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman discovered how to deliver mRNA into cells inside the body by enveloping the molecule inside lipid bubbles (illustrated). Technology that was...
Oct 2, 2023 · Nearly three years after the rollout of mRNA vaccines across the world, Katalin Karikó, an adjunct professor of neurosurgery in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, and Drew Weissman, the Roberts Family Professor of Vaccine Research in the Perelman School of Medicine, are recipients of the prize announced this morning by the Nobel Assembly in Sol...
Oct 2, 2023 · Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman met at copy machine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and collaborated for decades to try to find ways to use genetic material called messenger...
