The originators of genes won the medicine prize
The 2007 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine honors Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, for their discoveries that enabled the development of vaccines against COVID-19
This year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to biochemist Katalin Karikó and immunologist Drew Weissman for discoveries that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
“The ideas that she and Drew Weismann developed were critical for the success of RNA vaccines,” said John Tregoning, a vaccine immunologist at Imperial College London, in a press statement for the UK Science Media Centre. “They demonstrated that changing the type of the RNA nucleotides within the vaccine altered the way in which cells see it. This increased the amount of vaccine protein made following the injection of the RNA, effectively increasing the efficiency of the vaccination: more response for less RNA.”
Many advances were necessary to achieve COVID-19 vaccines based on mRNA, and hundreds of scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines for decades before the breakthrough. (Nature | 21 min read) (Nik Spencer/Nature; Adapted from M. D. Buschmann et al. The vaccine prices are as follows: Vaccines 9, 65, and 21.
Karikó and Weissman, both at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, paved the way for their development by finding a way to deliver genetic material called messenger RNA (mRNA) into cells without triggering an unwanted immune response.
The vaccines have been administered more than 13 billion times, saved millions of lives and prevented severe COVID-19 in millions of people, said the Nobel committee.
Biochemist Katalin Karikó and immunologist Drew Weissman have won the Nobel Prize for discoveries that enabled the development of mRNA COVID vaccines. Plus, the break-up of a supercontinent churned up rare pink diamonds and how a heart starts to beat.
In 2021, in this newsletter, Nature Chief Magazine Editor Helen Pearson recommended a profile of Karikó in The New York Times. “First for showing how the spectacularly fast production of COVID-19 vaccines actually rests on decades of meticulous basic research into mRNA, and second for highlighting the difficulty that many scientists face when moving precariously from one temporary position to another to pursue the bench research they love.”
Later that year, Karikó and Weissman won one of the most lucrative awards in science: the US$3-million Breakthrough Prize. She took a pay cut and was demoted because of her work in the 1990s which led to numerous grant-proposal and paper rejections.
The birth of pink diamonds: a natural process triggering a heartbeat in Yemen’s Taiz region and its implications for mental-health professionals
The break-up of Nuna triggered eruptions 1.3 billion years ago, triggering the creation of Western Australia’s pink diamonds. “The diamonds are being forced to bend and twist,” says geologist and study co-author Hugo Olierook. “If they’re twisted just a little bit, it will turn some of these diamonds pink.” When Nuna split apart, it reopened a seam along a continental boundary and dredged the diamonds up from the mantle, where they were formed. Volcanic eruptions then brought the diamond-bearing melt to the surface.
An embryo has a heart that doesn’t coordinate with its first beat. The random cluster of heart cells start beating when naturally occurring electrical signals in surrounding tissue are activated. This causes nearby cells to go into motion. This is different to the adult heart of a fish, which has cells controlling its heartbeat.
“It is my duty not to leave behind those who are suffering as a result of painful experiences and severe psychological crises,” says Anjila Sultan, who heads a team of five female psychologists that provides support for women and children in Yemen’s Taiz region. Yemen has been engulfed in a civil war since 2014 and severely lacks mental-health professionals. “Working in such conditions requires neutrality during quarrels between different parts of the population, and the ability to deal quietly with questions from people who might be suspicious of our motives,” Sultan explains.
Source: Daily briefing: Medicine Nobel Prize for mRNA research
Against Embryo Models: Jack Pokoj’s Ocean Wildlife Photographer of the Year (2001) for his photo of an lizardfish trying to eat
Models that have the potential to produce something similar to an intact human embryo raise serious ethical and regulatory concerns. Researchers should ask themselves if they’re making a model for scientific reasons, if there’s an alternative system and whether or not they’re prepared to defend their work in public opinion. Some models that mimic only certain aspects of development can help answer some pressing research questions and embryo models can do the same.
Jack Pokoj won the award for Oceanographic’s ocean wildlife photographer of the year for his photo of a lizardfish trying to eat.
