Reacción a "Reactions: Nobel Prize in Physiology awarded to Karikó and Weissman for their discoveries that led to the development of effective mRNA vaccines against covid-19"

This year's Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to the two scientists who have made possible a revolutionary approach in the field of immunology by developing the technology to produce messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines: Hungarian biochemist Katalin Karikó and American physician Drew Weissman.  

The key innovation of their approach is the in vitro production of mRNA with one of its nucleotide bases chemically modified (pseudouridine instead of uridine) and whose sequence encodes the immunogenic protein of interest (e.g. the spike or S protein of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus). This mRNA, properly encapsidated, can be delivered by different routes, is internalised by the dendritic cells of the immune system and its translation within them generates and exposes the encoded protein without triggering an unwanted inflammatory response.

This approach was essential for the production of the most efficient SARS-CoV-2 vaccines during the covid-19 pandemic (those marketed by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna), and its use has undoubtedly saved millions of lives worldwide. Moreover, this same methodology is being used for the development of vaccines against other pathogens, and in the treatment of different diseases. For all these reasons, this is a well-deserved award, one that I had bet on this year and which I am particularly pleased about. In addition, the award highlights once again the relationship between basic research and its biotechnological applications, and underlines the importance that RNA (the biomolecule that mediates between DNA and proteins in all our cells) has had in biology since life began on Earth, some 3.8 billion years ago.