The scientists awarded this Monday with the Nobel Prize in Medicine had already been awarded last year in Portugal for the same research through the Bial Foundation, the institution recalled when congratulating the winners.
In a statement, in addition to congratulating and congratulating “the prestigious scientists,” the Bial Foundation recalls that the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine distinguishes the 2022 winners of the “Bial Prize in Biomedicine.”
The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for the discoveries they allowed the development of effective mRNA vaccines against Covid-19the academy announced this Monday.
The distinction for research work focused on mRNA technology, used in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines to prevent Covid-19, won the second edition of the Bial biomedicine award in February of last year.
Specifically, as announced at the time, the 2021 Bial Biomedicine Prize was awarded on February 18, 2022. attributed to a preclinical study of a vaccine against the Zika virus based on messenger RNA genetic technology, uused in two vaccines for Covid-19.
The study, published in 2017, was carried out by a team led by the American immunologist Drew Weissman, which includes the Hungarian biochemist Katalin Karikó, vice president of BioNTech and author of the patent on which the Covid-19 vaccine is based. created jointly by the German biotechnology company and the North American pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
In statements to Lusa, the American immunologist Drew Weissman spoke about vaccines against Covid-19 increasingly powerful and recognized that the work he led did not continuenoting that “the effort to develop a Zika vaccine was considerably reduced” with the end of the Zika epidemic.
However, he highlighted the “enormous potential” of mRNA technology for “many infectious diseasesautoimmune and cancer.
Source: Observadora
