The names of the winners of Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine 2023 are now known: Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman. According to a statement from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, this distinction was due to discoveries “about modifications of nucleoside bases that allowed the development of effective mRNA vaccines against Covid-19.”

These experiments ended up fundamentally altering “our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system” and there is no doubt that “the laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in recent times modern.”

The two researchers discovered that cells in vitro recognized mRNA “from external substances, which led to the activation and release of inflammatory signaling molecules.” Taking the observation into account, Karikó and Weissman tested several mRNA chains - “each with unique chemical changes at its base” - to understand the effect on cells. “The inflammatory response was almost abolished when base modifications were included in the mRNA. This was a paradigm shift in our understanding of how cells recognize and respond to different forms of mRNA. Karikó and Weissman immediately understood that their discovery had profound significance for the use of mRNA as a therapy."

This technology was the basis that allowed the development of vaccines against Zika, MERS-CoV and, more recently, SARS-CoV-2 – responsible for Covid-19 disease.

"The impressive flexibility and speed with which mRNA vaccines can be developed paves the way for the use of these new platforms also for vaccines against other infectious diseases," says the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

This is the 114th Nobel Prize for Medicine to be awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The first Nobel Prize for Medicine was awarded in 1901.