The Nobel for mRNA
Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman are honoured for work that was rejected for decades.
- When
- Known to
- ± 12 hours
- Era
- Contemporary, Holocene
- Where
- Stockholm, Sweden · 59.3293° N, 18.0686° E
The 2023 medicine prize, announced 2 October, went to the nucleoside modification that stopped synthetic mRNA from triggering an immune reaction — the discovery that made mRNA vaccines possible. Kariko had been demoted and had her funding refused repeatedly through the 1990s. The vaccines built on it were given to billions of people within a year of the pandemic beginning.