The Nobel Prizes for 2023 are being announced between 2 and 9 October.
Scientific discoveries that led to the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 were among the prize-winning efforts.
From medicine to literature, here’s what you need to know about the 6 awards this year.
In May 2023, the World Health Organization declared the end of COVID-19 as a global health emergency. The pandemic claimed more than 6.9 million lives in three years.
The speed with which vaccines against the virus were produced was unprecedented. At the time of writing, more than 13.5 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered and more than 70% of the global population has received at least one dose.
Now two scientists whose research led to the development of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 mRNA vaccines have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine, the first laureates to be named this year.
Have you read?
mRNA vaccines – here’s everything you need to know
Medicine to Peace: These are
the Nobel Prize winners in 2022
Ukrainian Nobel Peace laureate on democracy, human rights and technology at Davos 2023
Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine
Hungarian scientist Katalin Kariko and her US colleague Drew Weissman met in the queue for the photocopier in 1998 – and went on to work together.
In 2005, they overcame a major hurdle in the use of messenger RNA (mRNA) technology, developing “nucleoside base modifications”, which stop the immune system from launching an inflammatory attack lab-made mRNA.
“We couldn’t get people to notice RNA as something interesting,” Weissman said. “Pretty much everybody gave up on it.”
Kariko is a former senior vice president and head of RNA protein replacement at German biotech firm BioNTech, which developed an mRNA COVID-19 vaccine with Pfizer.
“The laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,” said the Nobel Assembly of Sweden’s Karolinska Institute medical universi
ty.
What is a Messenger RNA vaccine?
What is a Messenger RNA vaccine?
Image: Pfizer
Nobel Prize for Physics
It may be possible to detect traces of disease more easily in future, thanks to the work of three scientists who were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics.
Pierre Agostini, Ferenc Krausz and Anne L’Huillier literally shone light on the movement of electrons inside atoms and molecules, something previously thought impossible.
The trio created ultra-short pulses of light that can give a snapshot of changes within atoms, providing a tool that could help with the detection of disease molecules in blood samples.
“The ability to generate attosecond pulses of light has opened the door on a tiny, extremely tiny, time scale and it’s also opened the door to the world of electrons,” said Eva Olsson, from the Nobel Prize in Physics Selection Committee.
Nobel Prize for Chemistry
Three Nobel Laureates in Chemistry 2023 are also recognized for pioneering work on a tiny scale – in nanotechnology – creating par
ticles so small their properties are determined by quantum phenomena.
In the 1980s, Alexei Ekimov achieved size-dependent quantum effects in coloured glass via copper chloride nanoparticles. Louis Brus later proved this in fluid-suspended particles, while in 1993, Moungi Bawendi improved quantum dot production for practical use.
Quantum dots, luminescent nanoparticles made of semiconducting materials, are now used in everything from computer monitors and TV screens to LED lamps and the latest techniques for mapping biological tissue.
“In terms of size, it has the same relationship to a football as a football has to the size of Earth,” explained the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in a recent X (formerly Twitter) post.
Source: World Economic Forum