Hungary's Katalin Kariko and US' Drew Weissman on Monday won the Nobel Prize in Medicine for their discoveries that were critical for developing effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
"Through their groundbreaking findings, which have fundamentally changed our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system, 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.
Who Is Katalin Kariko, Adjunct Professor At University Of Pennsylvania?
Katalin Kariko was born in 1955 in Szolnok in Hungary. She received her bachelor's degree in biology in 1978 and her doctorate in biochemistry in 1982 from the University of Szeged.
She pursued postdoctoral research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in Szeged until 1985. She then moved to the US, where she conducted postdoctoral research at Temple University, Philadelphia, and the University of Health Science, Bethesda.
Ms Kariko was appointed Assistant Professor at the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 and remained there until 2013.
She then became vice president and later senior vice president at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals.
Since 2021, Ms Kariko has been a Professor at Szeged University and an Adjunct Professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
Who Is Drew Weissman, Roberts Family Professor At University Of Pennsylvania?
Drew Weissman was born in 1959 in Lexington, Massachusetts in the US. He did his BA in biochemistry and MA in Enzymology from Brandeis University in 1981.
Mr Weissman received his MD in immunology and PhD in microbiology degrees from Boston University in 1987.
He then did his clinical training at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center at Harvard Medical School and postdoctoral research at the National Institutes of Health.
He established his research group at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in 1997.
Mr Weissman, who began collaborating with Ms Kariko in 1997. is also the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research and Director of the Penn Institute for RNA Innovations.
