Katalin Kariko from Hungary and American-born Drew Weissman have won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their research that paved the way for the first mRNA vaccines against COVID-19, made by Pfizer and Moderna.
The Nobel Prize committee announced the winners in Sweden on Monday.
“The laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,” the jury said in Sweden’s capital Stockholm on Monday.
Professor at Sagan’s University in Hungary and an adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Katalin Kariko researched mRNA along with Drew Weissman at the University of Pennsylvania.
Their prize will include a diploma, a gold medal and a $1 million cheque on December 10 in Stockholm. That day will also mark the death anniversary of Alfred Nobel, the scientist who created the prize in his last will and testament.
