This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine goes to a transformative medical technology that significantly altered the path of the pandemic and saved millions: the mRNA vaccines against COVID. Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman were jointly awarded the prize for advancements that changed the field of vaccine development and researchers’ understanding of how messenger RNA interacts with the body’s immune system.
Karikó and Weissman first published their seminal work on mRNA vaccines in 2005, when they worked together at the University of Pennsylvania. Their research overcame major obstacles to the use of in vitro synthetic mRNA technology, such as an inflammatory response by the body that involves the production of harmful cytokines.
“What’s important here, I think, is that vaccines could be developed so fast. And this was, as we just heard, largely due to ... improvements in the technology and this basic discovery,” said Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam, a member of the 2023 Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine, at this morning’s announcement.
Karikó was born in 1955 in Szolnok, Hungary. In 1989, she became an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she remained until 2013. She was a senior vice president of BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals—a major manufacturer of an mRNA COVID vaccine—and is now an external consultant for BioNTech. She is also a professor at the University of Szeged in Hungary and an adjunct professor at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Weissman was born in 1959 in Lexington, Mass. In 1997 he established his research group at the Perelman School of Medicine. Weissman is Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research at the University of Pennsylvania and director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovation.
Health Health Latest News, Health Health Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Source: newscientist - 🏆 541. / 51 Read more »
Nobel Prize announcements are getting underway with the unveiling of the medicine prizeSix days of Nobel Prize announcements are beginning with the unveiling of the winner of the medicine award
Source: sdut - 🏆 5. / 95 Read more »
Source: wjxt4 - 🏆 246. / 63 Read more »
Source: ksatnews - 🏆 442. / 53 Read more »
Source: KPRC2 - 🏆 80. / 68 Read more »
Source: physorg_com - 🏆 388. / 55 Read more »