Katalin Kariko and Weissman awarded Nobel Prize for their contribution to the development of anti-Covid mRNA vaccines
[ad_1]
This time the Nobel Prize in Medicine will be awarded to Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman for their discoveries related to the development of mRNA vaccines to fight Covid-19. Nobel Assembly Secretary Thomas Perlman announced the prize in Stockholm on Monday. Born in Hungary, Kariko is a professor at the University of Szeged there and also teaches at the University of Pennsylvania. American citizen Weissman conducted this research with Kariko at the University of Pennsylvania. Kariko (68) is the 13th woman to win the Nobel Prize in Medicine. She was a senior vice president at BioNTech. This company had partnered with Pfizer Company to produce a vaccine for Covid-19.
Weissman, 64, director and professor at Penn’s Institute for RNA Innovation, met Kariko by chance while photocopying research papers in the 1990s. This information has been given in the university’s website ‘Penn Today’. “Through their groundbreaking research that has fundamentally changed our understanding of the interaction of mRNA and our immune system, the award winners have addressed one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,” the awards committee said. Perlman said that when he contacted the two scientists shortly before the announcement, they were thrilled to hear the news of the award.
Dr. Paul Hunter, a professor of medicine at a British university, described mRNA vaccines as revolutionary in helping end the coronavirus pandemic. He said, “If there was no mRNA technology, the Covid pandemic would have become worse.” Dr. Bharat Pankhania, an infectious disease expert at Exeter University, said that a major advantage of mRNA technology is that they can be made in very large quantities. Nobel committee member Gunilla Carlsson Hedestam said the prize underlines the decades of basic research behind such work. Kariko said her husband answered the phone call with news of the award in the morning and put her on hold to hear the news.
“I couldn’t believe it,” he said. I was astonished. But I’m very happy.” Last year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to Swedish scientist Svante Pääbo for discoveries in human evolution that revealed the secrets of Neanderthal DNA. This provided important information about our immune system, including our susceptibility to COVID-19. Earlier, Paabo’s father Sun Bergstrom was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1982. The Nobel Prize for Physics will be announced on Tuesday and the award for contribution in the field of Chemistry will be announced on Wednesday.
The name of the Nobel Prize winner for the field of literature will be announced on Thursday. The Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday and the Nobel Prize for Economics on October 9. The Nobel Prize carries a cash prize of 11 million Swedish kronor (1 million US dollars). The money is given from the estate of the prize’s founder, Swedish citizen Alfred Nobel, who died in 1896.
Disclaimer: IndiaTheNews has not edited this news. This news has been published from PTI-language feed.
[ad_2]
Source link
