Two Penn scientists awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for work with mRNA, COVID-19 vaccines

A pair of Ivy League scientists have been awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research developing mRNA vaccines, leading to the vaccine development against COVID-19.

The prestigious award was given Monday to Dr. Katalin Karikó and Dr. Drew Weissman, both professors at the University of Pennsylvania, nearly three years after the rollout of mRNA vaccines around the world to help combat COVID-19.

Karikó and Weissman met in the late 1990s, according to a release from Penn Medicine, and began investigating mRNA as a potential therapeutic. In 2005, they published findings that mRNA could be altered and delivered effectively into the body to activate the immune system.

During the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, both Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna used the pair's technology to build their vaccines.

In a press release, the Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet called Karikó and Weissman's work "critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines" against COVID-19.

According to Penn Medicine, mRNA vaccines make up more then 655 million total doses of the vaccines for COVID-19 since they first became available in December 2020.

There have been 114 medicine prizes since the Nobel Assembly at Nobel Assembly at Karolinska Institutet began to award the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. There have been 227 medicine laureates, with 13 women among those awarded.

What is the Nobel Prize?

The Nobel Prize is awarded by the Nobel Foundation, and is a set of awards given annually to people in physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and peace. There is also a prize given in Economic Science, funded by the Sveriges Risbank in 1968.

The first award was given in 1901.

It was created by Swedish industrialist Alfred Nobel, known for his invention of dynamite, in his will in 1895.

What is the Nobel Prize?A history lesson on the coveted awards, plus famous past winners.