Scientists behind mRNA COVID vaccines receive Nobel Prize

Professors Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine yesterday for their research into mRNA that enabled the development of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The two professors, who met in the early 1990s and worked together at the University of Pennsylvania, were awarded the prize  for their “discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.”

Background

In 2005, Kariko and Weissman discovered that mRNA can be manipulated to create a new kind of vaccine. Since mRNA instructs the body on building proteins in cells, Kariko and Weissman figured out a way to chemically tweak messenger RNA and inject it into a body to trick it into activating an immune response. But their discovery didn’t result in a great response.

According to Kariko, a Hungarian-born scientist, she “was kicked out and forced to retire” from Penn 10 years ago. And in 2013, she joined BioNTech, a little-known startup that was trying to figure out how to turn mRNA into medicine.

The pandemic
It was during the COVID-19 pandemic that Kariko and Weissman’s discovery came in handy. Their decades of research allowed the launch of a vaccine in record time.

The future of mRNA vaccine technology
The mRNA vaccine technology can potentially help scientists create vaccines for several diseases, including cancer, RSV, HIV, Zika, and malaria. BioNTech and Moderna are already working on it.