Nobel Prize in Medicine: Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, two messenger RNA specialists crowned

2023-10-02 11:55:36

The Hungarian Katalin Kariko and the American Drew Weissman, pioneers of messenger RNA vaccines who opened the way to the discovery of vaccines against Covid-19, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine this Monday by the Nobel Assembly of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm. This prize opens, like every year, the season of famous awards.

BREAKING NEWS
The 2023 #NobelPrize in Physiology or Medicine has been 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. pic.twitter.com/Y62uJDlNMj

— The Nobel Prize (@NobelPrize) October 2, 2023

The creator of prizes in the field of medicine and physiology, the Swedish inventor Alfred Nobel (1833-1896), aimed to reward a researcher for his “benefit for humanity”. The prize has crowned major discoveries throughout history such as X-rays, penicillin, insulin and DNA, but also lobotomy and the insecticide DDT, which have now fallen into disgrace.

Last year, Swede Svante Pääbo was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine for “his discoveries concerning the genomes of extinct hominins and human evolution”.

Nobel season is open

For the Nobel Prize in Physics on Tuesday, the properties of twisted graphene or the IceCube neutrino observatory in Antarctica return among the areas in the spotlight, as does the development of high-density data storage in the field of spintronics, which exploits the quantum property of electron spin.

For the Chemistry Nobel on Wednesday, the director of the Clarivate institute believes that next-generation DNA sequencing could be rewarded. NR radio’s Lars Brostrom favors US-based biologist Omar Yaghi and his work on metal-organic networks (MORs) and their porous properties for absorbing dangerous gases, “an important area for future”, particularly for the environment.

Among the names up for the Nobel Prize in Literature on Thursday are Russian writer and Kremlin opponent Lyudmila Ulitskaya, avant-garde Chinese writer Can Xue, and Salman Rushdie, the famous British writer prosecuted by a fatwa .

The shadow of the war in Ukraine and a fragmented world community hangs over the Nobel Peace Prize, the flagship award whose winner will be named Friday in Oslo. Some are pleading for Iranian women who are showing their anger and, for some, falling the veil since the death of the young Mahsa Amini who died in September 2022. Others are proposing to reward those who investigate war crimes committed in Ukraine.

The Nobel Prize in Economics will conclude the season on Monday October 9.