Scientists behind Covid-19 vaccine win Nobel Prize
EVERY year the Nobel Prize is awarded to people who have done outstanding work in their fields – and this year two scientists whose research led to the development of the Covid-19 vaccine received the prize for physiology or medicine.
Hungarian biochemist KATALIN KARIKÓ and American immunologist DREW WEISSMAN met in a hallway at university in 1997 while trying to make prints of documents. The pair struck up a friendship that led to more than 20 years of collaborating on research into how messenger RNA (mRNA) works and how it interacts with our immune system.
MRNA carries information from DNA in our cells and provides instructions on how to build proteins so that the body can function.
HOW DOES IT WORK?
Vaccines are traditionally made from weakened or inactive versions of a virus, which are then injected into humans. This means that when you contract the virus, you already have the antibodies needed to fight it.
However, this process takes a lot of time – and with the Covid pandemic there was pressure to do something quickly to help people.
Messenger RNA vaccines are made from a piece of the virus’ genetic material. Once injected into the body, the vaccine teaches your immune system how to protect the body from the virus.
The speed at which Covid-19 vaccines were manufactured has never been seen before and this could only happen so quickly because of Karikó and Weissman’s research over the years.
The vaccines have saved millions of lives and prevented severe disease in many more, allowing lockdown restrictions to be lifted and societies to return to normal conditions.
Now the same mRNA technology is being researched for other diseases, including cancer.