Stockholm, Oct 2: It was a euphoric moment for scientists Katalin Karikó and Weissman who won the
Noble prize in medicine on Monday for their discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines
against Covid-19.
Their discoveries could also be used to develop other vaccine shots in the future.
Hungarian-born 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 in
modern times,” according to the panel that awarded the prize in Stockholm.
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 — often in giant vats of cells
or, like most flu shots, in chicken eggs — and then purifying them before next steps in brewing shots.
The messenger RNA approach is radically different. It starts with a snippet of genetic code that carries
instructions for making proteins. Pick the right virus protein to target, and the body turns into a mini
vaccine factory.
Nevertheless, simply injecting lab-grown mRNA into the body triggered an inflammatory 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 those 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.
She and Weissman, 64, who is a professor and director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations, met
by chance in the 1990s while photocopying research papers, according to Penn Today, the university’s
news website.
Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at Britain’s University of East Anglia, described the mRNA
vaccines as a “game changer” in helping to shut down the coronavirus pandemic, crediting the shots
with saving millions of lives.
“If it hadn’t been for the mRNA technology, Covid would have been much worse,” he said.
“Vaccines generally were the turning point in slowing down Covid and the mRNA vaccines were just so
much better than all the others,” he said, noting that the main vaccine used in the UK, made by
AstraZeneca, is barely in use anymore.
“We would likely only now be coming out of the depths of Covid without the mRNA vaccines,” Hunter
said.
Bharat Pankhania, an infectious diseases expert at Exeter University, said that a major advantage of
mRNA technology was that vaccines could be made in extremely large quantities since their main
components are made in laboratories.
Pankhania predicted that the technology used in the vaccines could be used to refine vaccines for other
diseases like Ebola, malaria and dengue, and might also be used to create shots that immunize people
against certain types of cancer or auto-immune diseases like lupus.
“It’s possible that we could vaccinate people against abnormal cancer proteins and have the immune
system attack it after being given a targeted mRNA shot,” he explained.
“It’s a much more targeted technology than has been previously available and could revolutionize how
we handle not only outbreaks, but non-communicable diseases.”
Nobel Committee member Gunilla Karlsson Hedestam said the prize could go some way to addressing
concerns among skeptics about the speed with which Covid-19 vaccines were developed.
She said the award highlights “the decades of basic research that’s behind this kind of work.”
Meanwhile, both Karikó and Weissman were elated to receive the prestigious award.
Karikó said her husband was the first to pick up the early morning call, handing it to her to hear the
news. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I was very much surprised. But I am very happy.”
Before Covid-19, mRNA vaccines were already being tested for other diseases like Zika, influenza and
rabies — but the pandemic brought more attention to this approach, Karikó said.
“Clinical trials were already done before Covid, but people were not aware,” she said.
Thomas Perlmann, the secretary of the Nobel Assembly who announced the prize, said both scientists
were “overwhelmed” by the news when he spoke to them shortly before their names became public.
The prize carries a cash award of 11 million Swedish kronor (USD 1 million) — from a bequest left by the
prize’s creator, Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel.
The laureates are invited to receive their awards at ceremonies on December 10, the anniversary of
Nobel’s death.
Nobel announcements continue with the physics prize on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday and
literature on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced Friday and the economics award on
October 9. (AP)
