Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Awarded to Karyko and Weissman for Developing mRNA COVID-19 Vaccine (Update)

The 'COVID-19 messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) vaccine' developers, Katalin Karik?, Senior Vice President of BioNTech from Hungary, and Drew Weissman, Professor at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine in the United States, have been selected as this year's Nobel Prize winners in Physiology or Medicine.

[Image source=AFP Yonhap News]

The Nobel Committee at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden announced on the 2nd (local time) that these two were chosen as this year's laureates in Physiology or Medicine. These two individuals were key figures in developing the mRNA vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic and had been considered strong candidates for the prize.

The Nobel Committee cited their major contribution as "the discovery of nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective COVID-19 mRNA vaccines," and evaluated that "the laureates contributed to the unprecedented speed of vaccine development during a time when one of the greatest threats to modern human health existed, through their groundbreaking discovery that fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with the immune system." The two laureates will share a prize of 11 million Swedish kronor (approximately 1.34 billion Korean won). The award ceremony will be held in Stockholm, Sweden, during 'Nobel Week' on December 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobel's death.

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded a total of 114 times from 1901 to this year. However, no laureates were selected nine times during periods such as World War I and II (1915?1918, 1921, 1925, 1940?1942). Up to this year, 227 individuals have received the prize. Among them, 13 are women, including Senior Vice President Karik?. Among the female laureates, the only solo female winner is Barbara McClintock, who received the prize in 1983.

Meanwhile, the Nobel Committee will announce the winners of the Physics Prize on the 3rd, Chemistry Prize on the 4th, Literature Prize on the 5th, Peace Prize on the 6th, and Economic Sciences Prize on the 9th, following the announcement of the Physiology or Medicine Prize on this day.