Nobel Prize for scientists behind mRNA COVID-19 vaccines

STOCKHOLM (AP) — Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. 

The vaccines were critical in slowing the pandemic and whose technology could be used in the future to develop shots against other diseases like cancer and lupus.

Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó and American Drew Weissman were cited for contributing “to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health,” according to the panel that awarded the prize in Stockholm.

WHAT IS THE NOBEL FOR?

The panel said the pair's “groundbreaking findings ... fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system."

Traditionally, making vaccines required growing viruses or pieces of viruses and then purifying them before next steps. T he messenger RNA approach starts with a snippet of genetic code carrying instructions for making proteins. Pick the right virus protein to target, and the body turns into a mini vaccine factory.

But simply injecting lab-grown mRNA into the body triggered a reaction that usually destroyed it. Karikó, a professor at Szeged University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Weissman, of the University of Pennsylvania, figured out a tiny modification to the building blocks of RNA that made it stealthy enough to slip past immune defenses.

Karikó, 68, is the 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize in medicine. She was a senior vice president at BioNTech, which partnered with Pfizer to make one of the COVID-19 vaccines. Kariko and Weissman, 64, met by chance in the 1990s while photocopying research papers, Kariko told The Associated Press.

WHY DO MRNA VACCINES MATTER?

Dr Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain's University of East Anglia, described the mRNA vaccines made by BioNTech-Pfizer and Moderna Inc. as a “game changer” in shutting down the coronavirus pandemic, crediting the shots with saving millions of lives.

“We would likely only now be coming out of the depths of COVID without the mRNA vaccines,” Hunter said.

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