Analyses of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine: Nucleoside Base Modifications and Effective mRNA Vaccines

Abstract

ABSTRACT Katalin Karikó, affiliated with Szeged University, Szeged, Hungary and University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, and Drew Weissman, affiliated with Penn Institute for RNA Innovations, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA, were awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their contributions to the foundational work of nucleoside base modifications that supported the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. They identified modifications of nucleoside bases of in vitro mRNA that enabled efficient protein production without undesired inflammatory responses. Their work allowed for the advancement of future mRNA applications, including the COVID-19 vaccines. Following a general overview of mRNA modifications and mRNA vaccines is a bibliometric analysis of each of this year’s laureates and their work.