Covid vaccine pioneers win Nobel Prize

Two scientists that developed technology that led to mRNA Covid vaccines have won the Nobel Prize in medicine.

A woman receives a Covid vaccine in France. (Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP)

Two scientists who developed technology that led to the mRNA Covid vaccines have won the Nobel Prize.

Dr Katalin Kariko and Dr Drew Weissman will share the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine after their pioneering work helped save millions of lives during the pandemic.

The same mRNA technology is now being researched for other diseases and even cancer.

Katalin Kariko (L) and American physician-scientist Drew Weissman have won the Nobel Prize. (Photo by Eugene Hoshiko / POOL / AFP)

The Nobel Prize Committee said: “The laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.”

During the Covid pandemic, the Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech vaccines were both based on mRNA technology.

Traditional vaccines use dead or weakened versions of the original virus or bacterium.

A woman gets a coronavirus vaccine in France. (Photo by Christophe ARCHAMBAULT / AFP)

However mRNA vaccines work by teaching the body to build a protein from a virus. The body sees that the protein doesn’t belong and makes antibodies to guard against it.

The prize, among the most prestigious in the scientific world, is selected by the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute medical university and also comes with 11 million Swedish crowns (about $1.5 million).

Kariko was senior vice president and head of RNA protein replacement at BioNTech until 2022 and has since acted as an adviser to the company. She is also a professor at the University of Szeged in Hungary and adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

Weissman is professor in vaccine research at the Perelman School.

Kariko found a way to prevent the immune system from launching an inflammatory reaction against lab-made mRNA, previously seen as a major hurdle against any therapeutic use of mRNA.

Together with Weissman, she showed in 2005 that adjustments to nucleosides, the molecular letters that write the mRNA’s genetic code, can keep the mRNA under the immune system’s radar.

The medicine prize kicks off this year’s awards with the remaining five to be unveiled in the coming days.

The prizes, first handed out in 1901, were created by Swedish dynamite inventor and wealthy businessman Alfred Nobel, and are awarded for achievements in science, literature and peace, and in later years also for economics.

The Swedish king will present the prizes at a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, the anniversary of Nobel’s death, followed by a lavish banquet at city hall.