Two corona vaccine researchers win Nobel Prize in medicine

The Nobel prize in medicine was awarded on Monday (October 2) to two scientists whose research laid the groundwork for messenger RNA vaccines that transformed the threat of the coronavirus pandemic.

For years, Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian-born scientist whose ferocious and singleminded pursuit of messenger RNA exiled her to the outskirts of science, worked closely with Drew Weissman, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania who saw the potential for the technology to create a new kind of vaccine, the Washington Post reported.

Together, they discovered how to chemically tweak messenger RNA, turning basic biology into a technology ready to change the world when the pandemic struck.

The Nobel Assembly cited the importance of the work for contributing to “the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.”