Published by: CNBC-TV18.com
Awarded for "their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19."
Born in 1955 in Szolnok, Hungary
Kariko was raised in a small Hungarian village; she demonstrated an early passion for nature and excelled academically in the field of science.
She received her PhD from Szeged University in 1982 and performed postdoctoral research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged until 1985.
She moved to the US in the 1980s to support her messenger RNA (mRNA) research.
Currently, she is a Professor at Szeged University and an Adiunct Professor at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Born in 1959 in Massachusetts, US
Weissman is a world-renowned physician. He received his MD, PhD degrees from Boston University in 1987.
He did his clinical training at Harvard Medical School and postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health.
In 1997, Weissman established his research group at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
He is the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research and Director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations.
The duo is known for their pioneering research into RNA therapeutics, particularly the development of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines.
Driven by their shared fascination with RNA and a desire to investigate its potential in combating diseases, Kariko and Weissman began collaborating at Penn in the 1990s.
They dedicated years to establishing the foundation for a novel vaccine approach, focusing on messenger RNA (mRNA).
When Covid struck, their research breakthroughs became the cornerstone for vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
Their work, predating Covid-19 era, laid the essential foundation for the mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines, enabling an unprecedented speed of production during the pandemic.
Source: Nobel Prize Website, News Reports