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"

In the field of scientific research, small discoveries mean great scientific advances, and this is the case, given that the research carried out by Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman on modifications in the composition of mRNA allowed the development of the mRNA vaccines that we know today and that have saved so many lives during the pandemic.

The first mRNA vaccines, in their unmodified formulation, were highly reactogenic, producing a large number of local inflammatory side effects that made their use in humans unthinkable. It was the work of Karikó and Weissman who discovered that by making small modifications in the composition of the mRNA (changing a Uridine for a pseudo-Uridine in the formulation of the nucleosides that make up the mRNA molecule), reactogenicity and inflammation decreased, local side effects disappeared and mRNA vaccines began to be applied to humans.

The company name Moderna comes from Modi-RNA (modified RNA).