Nobel Prize in medicine 2023 awarded to Katalin Karikó, Drew Weissman for pioneering mRNA vaccine to fight COVID-19

The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been jointly awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.”

In a release the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, that awards the Noble Prize in Physiology or Medicine research said the discoveries by Karikó and Weissman 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,” it said.

Karikó and Weissman, collectively honored with numerous national and international accolades, including the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, the Breakthrough Prize, the Princess of Asturias Award, the Albany Medical Center Prize in Medicine and Biomedical Research, the VinFuture Grand Prize, and the Tang Prize in Biopharmaceutical Science, have made significant contributions.

Their groundbreaking research, credited with saving lives, has gained extensive recognition and featured in countless global news outlets. In 2021, TIME magazine acknowledged them as “Heroes of the Year.”

Since 1901, 114 Nobel Prizes in Physiology or Medicine have been awarded of which 13 are women.

Frederick G. Banting, who was awarded the 1923 medicine prize for the discovery of insulin, was the youngest medicine laureate ever. She received the felicitation when she was 32 years old.

While, 87 years was the age of the oldest medicine laureate ever, Peyton Rous, when he was awarded the medicine prize in 1966 for his discovery of tumour-inducing viruses.

Interestingly, one father and son duo Sune Bergström and Svante Pääbo have each been awarded a medicine prize. Svante Pääbo was awarded 40 years after his father.

With inputs from agencies