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American Drew Weissman and Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó won the Nobel Prize in medicine on for discoveries that enabled the creation of mRNA vaccines against Covid-19. The panel said that the scientists were awarded for contributing “to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.”
Their “groundbreaking findings … fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system,” the panel said.
Drew Weissman, 64, a professor and director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations, met Katalin Karikó, 68, a senior vice president at BioNTech, by chance in the 1990s while photocopying research papers, according to Penn Today, the university’s news website.
On winning the prize Drew Weissman said he found it hard to believe he had won the prestigious award.
“I heard it from Katie first because they called her first and didn’t have my number,” he said, adding, “We weren’t sure if somebody was playing a prank on us.”
“I am not a big celebrator but would probably go out with his family for a “nice dinner”, he said.
While Katalin Karikó said that her husband was the first to pick up the early morning call, handing it to her to hear the news. “I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “I was very much surprised. But I am very happy.”
Before Covid-19, mRNA vaccines were already being tested for other diseases like Zika, influenza and rabies but the pandemic brought more attention to this approach, she said, explaining, “There was already clinical trials before COVID, but people were not aware.”
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