Wikipedia -WSS

Wikipedia

author：focus 2025-09-27 23:31:51 - browse：8234

Drew Weissman (left) and Katalin Karikó (right) — Drew Weissman (left) and Katalin Karikó, whose longtime partnership was recognized with a Nobel Prize on Monday. Peggy Peterson/Penn Medicine

The most noteworthy aspect of awarding the Nobel Prize in medicine or physiology to two pioneers of mRNA research was not who won Monday — Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman were widely expected to get the accolade for discoveries that made it possible to deliver the finicky molecule to cells and enabled the record-breaking development of vaccines that tamed the Covid-19 pandemic. It was the way the two scientists worked together.

The Nobel committee framed Karikó and Weissman’s work as a prime example of complementary expertise, with Karikó focused on RNA-based therapies and Weissman bringing a deep knowledge about immune responses to vaccines. In a rare moment for science’s top honor, which elevates the individual contributions of one, two, or at most, three researchers to a particularly impactful breakthrough, it is a celebration of a true scientific partnership — a durable and fruitful collaboration spanning more than two decades of working shoulder-to-shoulder at the lab bench that turned a scientific backwater into a blockbuster technology.

“We couldn’t get funding, we couldn’t get publications, we couldn’t get people to notice mRNA as something interesting,” Weissman told reporters at a press conference Monday at the University of Pennsylvania. “But Kati lit the match and we spent the rest of the next 20 plus years working together figuring out how to get it to work. We would sit together in 1997 and afterwards and talk about all the things we thought RNA could do. And that’s why we never gave up,” he said.

Get unlimited access to award-winning journalism and exclusive events.

Subscribe Log In

Previous article： Heart attack and stroke risk calculators need revising
Next article： Biogen walks away from Aduhelm, years after polarizing approval

WSS

FTC sues over Novant Health acquisition of two N.C. hospitals

Biogen walks away from Aduhelm, years after polarizing approval

Biogen walks away from Aduhelm, years after polarizing approval

Investment in vaccine development is lagging, report finds

Vertex non

Biogen walks away from Aduhelm, years after polarizing approval

entertainment

Wikipedia

explore

Apple is now the first public company to be valued at $3 trillion

Vertex non

Duchenne breakthrough therapy leaves behind pioneering families

The future of Biogen: Pragmatism, ‘moonshots,’ and no Twinkies

23andMe had bad news about my health. I wish a person had delivered it

Philips to halt sales of sleep apnea machines in U.S.

Dobbs anniversary: the lost opportunity of abortion as health care

Medicare drug price negotiation legal challenge met with skepticism

Drug repurposing or repositioning? The language matters

Harvard's Jason Buenrostro wins MacArthur grant for genetics work

hotspot

STAT Readout: Friday, Oct. 20 biotech updates

Readout LOUD podcast: Live from the 2023 STAT Summit

Roche acquires Telavant from Roivant, adding experimental IBD treatment

Health Care Service Corp to buy Cigna Medicare Advantage plans

STAT Summit: How researchers deal with rejection

Roche acquires Telavant from Roivant, adding experimental IBD treatment

entertainment

leisure time

focus

hotspot