The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine recognized biochemists Catalin Kariko and Drew Weissman for breakthroughs in nucleoside base modifications that made effective mRNA vaccines possible against COVID-19. The Nobel Committee announced the laureates during a ceremony held in Stockholm, highlighting how their work has shaped modern vaccine science.
These discoveries played a pivotal role in advancing a rapid and robust vaccine response to the pandemic that began in early 2020. By enabling mRNA to be tamed for safe and durable immune activation, Kariko and Weissman opened new avenues for vaccine development and disease treatment that extend beyond the current crisis.
According to the Nobel Committee, the pair made pioneering contributions that transformed our understanding of how messenger RNA interacts with the immune system. Their findings accelerated the pace of vaccine design during a period when cutting-edge science was essential to addressing a major global health threat. This assessment is attributed to the committee as part of the official record of the award for that year.
Kariko and Weissman focus on RNA research and succeeded in identifying nucleoside modifications that reduce the immunogenicity of RNA. Their work laid the groundwork for licensing arrangements and intellectual property that underpin current vaccine technologies. US patents cover the use of non-immunogenic RNA modified with nucleosides, and licensing agreements have facilitated the development of protein replacement approaches that inform the vaccine platforms used by leading companies in the field, such as BioNTech and Moderna for their early and ongoing efforts against COVID-19.
In a separate but related honor, the Nobel Prize in Medicine for 2022 was awarded to Swedish biologist Svante Pääbo for his work in evolutionary genetics. Pääbo is a founder of paleogenetics, a field that studies ancient human ancestry and hominid lineages through genetic analysis. The prize recognized his discoveries about human evolution and the genomes of extinct hominins. Notably, teams led by Pääbo succeeded in decoding the Neanderthal genome and identifying a previously unknown hominid group, the Denisovans, deepening our understanding of how modern humans relate to our extinct relatives.
Historically, the laureates and their institutions have built on a framework of research funding and collaboration that supports major scientific breakthroughs. This award cycle reflects how foundational advances in molecular biology can translate into practical medical technologies, helping to shield populations from infectious diseases and guiding future innovations in therapeutic strategies.