Nobel Prize in medicine: Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman

[pinball1970]

TL;DR Summary

Two scientists won the Nobel Prize in medicine on Monday for discoveries that enabled the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19

Article here

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-10-katalin-karik-drew-weissman-nobel.html

"The laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times,"

 

[Astronuc]

MSN also reported

The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to two scientists whose research laid the groundwork for messenger RNA vaccines that transformed the threat of the coronavirus pandemic.

For years, Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian-born scientist whose ferocious and single-minded pursuit of messenger RNA exiled her to the outskirts of science, worked closely with Drew Weissman, an immunologist at the University of Pennsylvania who saw the potential for the technology to create a new kind of vaccine.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/n...dation-for-messenger-rna-vaccines/ar-AA1hyzNR

 

[sbrothy]

MSN also reported

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/n...dation-for-messenger-rna-vaccines/ar-AA1hyzNR

See, "laying the groundwork" is, in my eyes, a valid reason for only 2 recipients (apropos the thread "Questions about submitting papers for peer review"). I'm sure though that even these guys didn't work in a vacuum.

EDIT: As if anyone ever did that.

 

[russ_watters]

I'm sure though that even these guys didn't work in a vacuum.

EDIT: As if anyone ever did that.

Their story is worth a read. They were largely ignored, even ostracized for this research. Kariko was demoted over it(repeated failure to get grants). If there's ever a case of two/lone voices shouting into the vacuum in science, this is it.

[extremely late edit]
And I don't use this word lightly: these two are genuine heroes, in the real and ususally comic book sense. Their work required severe personal sacrifice and likely saved literally millions of lives.

 

[sbrothy]

Their story is worth a read. They were largely ignored, even ostracized for this research. Kariko was demoted over it(repeated failure to get grants). If there's ever a case of two/lone voices shouting into the vacuum in science, this is it.

[extremely late edit]
And I don't use this word lightly: these two are genuine heroes, in the real and ususally comic book sense. Their work required severe personal sacrifice and likely saved literally millions of lives.

So once again professional and personal jalouxy rears it's ugly head? It kinda reminds of the whole debacle with "The String Wars" and the Bogdanov affair. Can't remember if it's apocryphal but it reminds me of Einstein's comment when he heard 100 physicists signed a proclamation that his theory was rubbish: "Had I been wrong one would have been enough."

 

[Astronuc]

Katalin Karikó won this year’s Nobel Prize in Medicine alongside Drew Weissman for their research that led to the development of mRNA Covid-19 vaccines, but a post from the University of Pennsylvania—where Karikó was demoted from tenure track in 1995—claiming her as a Penn researcher angered the medical community.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/ot...-academics-urge-penn-to-apologize/ar-AA1hE8A8

Karikó was hired by the University of Pennsylvania in 1989 as an adjunct professor and researcher, where she met and began collaborating with Weissman, a professor of medicine at Penn, in 1997.

Though initially on track to become a tenured professor, the university reportedly offered Karikó a choice to either leave or be demoted with a pay cut in 1995—which she said was “particularly horrible” because she had just been diagnosed with cancer and her husband was stuck in Hungary because of a visa issue—because her mRNA research was deemed too risky and did not attract enough grant funding.

Karikó took the demotion and continued her work, but later left her senior research investigator position at Penn (where she retains an adjunct professorship) in 2013 to serve as vice president at BioNTech—co-manufacturer of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine—because Penn refused to reinstate her to a tenure track position, reportedly considering her research “not of faculty quality.”

I think there are a number of U of Penn administrators who need to resign or be fired.

 

[Vanadium 50]

reportedly considering her research “not of faculty quality.”

Legend is that Heidelberg refused to give Rudy Mossbauer a PhD for the Mossbauer effect. A masters was fine, but a doctorate? Just not up to their standards,

 

[russ_watters]

I think there are a number of U of Penn administrators who need to resign or be fired.

Granting tenure or punishing other staff would require admitting the error. That would not play well in the media and marketing campaigns. Best to proudly support her and keep cashing the billion dollar royalty checks.

Now, for spite she could probably donate a bunch of money to build a new building and then exclude her detractors from using it.

 

[Vanadium 50]

Rosalyn Yallow named every journal who rejected her Nobel-winning paper during her Nobel lecture. Spite? Maybe - but funny as well.