Nobel Prize in Medicine goes to 2 Univ. of Penn scientists whose work enabled creation of mRNA vaccines

**NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN** · Oct 3, 2023

After meeting while photocoping research papers in 1997 , twenty-six years of mRNA research leads to two University of Pennsylvania researchers receiving Nobel prize in medicine --their efforts lead to Covid-19 vaccine development.

6ABCNews 10/3/2023

Nobel in medicine goes to 2 Penn scientists whose work enabled creation of mRNA vaccines

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Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 and could be used in the future to create other shots.

Katalin Karikó, a professor at Sagan's University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, and Drew Weissman, of the University of Pennsylvania, were awarded the prize for "their groundbreaking findings, which have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system," the panel that awarded the prize said....

Univ. of Penn Perelman School of Medicine

2020: University of Pennsylvania mRNA Biology Pioneers Receive COVID-19 Vaccine Enabled by their Foundational Research

2023: Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, Penn's historic mRNA vaccine research team, win 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine

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...Nearly three years after the rollout of mRNA vaccines across the world, Katalin Karikó, an adjunct professor of neurosurgery in Penn's Perelman School of Medicine, and Drew Weissman, the Roberts Family Professor of Vaccine Research in the Perelman School of Medicine, are recipients of the prize announced this morning by the Nobel Assembly in Solna, Sweden. ...

In 2005, they published a key discovery: mRNA could be altered and delivered effectively into the body to activate the body's protective immune system. The mRNA-based vaccines elicited a robust immune response, including high levels of antibodies that attack a specific infectious disease that has not previously been encountered. Unlike other vaccines, a live or attenuated virus is not injected or required at any point....