The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman.
This is for their research that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
Their “discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications enabled the very development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”.
The first vaccines to use the mRNA technology were those made by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna against COVID-19.
mRNA stands for messenger RNA, is a form of nucleic acid which carries genetic information.
Like other vaccines, the mRNA vaccine also attempts to activate the immune system to produce antibodies that help counter an infection from a live virus.
mRNA vaccines only introduce a piece of the genetic material that corresponds to a viral protein.
Therefore, the mRNA vaccine does not expose individuals to the virus itself.