On Sunday, October 2, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet announced the award for the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Hungarian scientist Katalin Karikó, 68, and American Scientist Drew Weissman, 64, for “their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”.
According to a statement by the Nobel Assembly published in the Nobel Prize website, the discoveries by the two Nobel Laureates were critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 during the pandemic that began in early 2020. “Through their groundbreaking findings, which have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system, the laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.” Stated the Assembly.
Katalin Karikó was born in 1955 in Szolnok, Hungary. Having received her PhD from Szeged’s University in 1982, Karikó pursued her postdoctoral research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged until 1985. She then conducted postdoctoral research at Temple University, Philadelphia, and the University of Health Science, Bethesda. In 1989, she was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where she remained until 2013. Following which, she became vice president and later senior vice president at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals. Since 2021, she has been a Professor at Szeged University and an Adjunct Professor at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
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Drew Weissman was born in 1959 in Lexington, Massachusetts, USA. He received his MD, PhD degrees from Boston University in 1987. Weissman completed his clinical training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School and postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health. In 1997, Weissman established his research group at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. He is the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research and Director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations.
The Nobel Assembly, consisting of 50 professors at Karolinska Institutet, awards the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Its Nobel Committee evaluates the nominations. Since 1901 the Nobel Prize has been awarded to scientists who have made the most important discoveries for the benefit of humankind.
