« Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian professor at Sagan’s University, and Drew Weissman, an American adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, were announced on Monday in Stockholm as the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology.
« The Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet has today awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly to Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of the effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19, » announced Thomas Perlmann, Secretary General of the Nobel Assembly.
Perlmann mentioned that during a call with Kariko and Weissman, both winners expressed their happiness, and he also revealed that the Hungarian scientist confessed to him that ten years ago she had been terminated from her position and had to move to Germany without her family to find a new job.
“So it has been a dramatic change in her circumstances, » Perlmann said.
Rickard Sandberg, one of the members of the Nobel Assembly, stated that this year’s Nobel Prize recognizes a basic science discovery that fundamentally changed the understanding of how mRNA interacts with the immune system and had a major impact on society during the recent pandemic.
The same mRNA research is now being used to combat other diseases, including cancer.
According to local media reports, Kariko and Weisman will be awarded a diploma, a gold medal, and a $1 million check from King Carl XVI Gustaf during a formal ceremony in Stockholm on December 10, which marks the death of Alfred Nobel, the creator of the prize. »
Source link