Human polynucleotide phosphorylase in mitochondrial RNA metabolism.

The 2003 Nobel Prize for MRI: significance and impact.

Nobel Prizes are prestigious world awards attributed for intellectual achievements. There are six prizes assigned each year from a fund bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist Alfred Bernhard Nobel (1833-1896). Each Prize consists of a diploma, a gold medal and a sum of money and it may be attributed to one, two or three different persons. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is regarded as the most relevant scientific acknowledgement in the biomedical area and it is annually awarded to the living researcher, or researchers, who has/have most contributed to progress in this field. So far (1901-2019), 110 Nobel Prizes in Medicine have been assigned to 219 medicine laureates, of whom the youngest has been 32 years old and the oldest 87. Nobel Prizes in Medicine have been attributed twice to married couples; twelve women have received the prize and nobody has been awarded for Medicine more than once. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is fundamental as is certified by its more than secular history. Generations of distinguished scientists have justly received it for discoveries, demonstrations and applications of paramount relevance. The geographical distribution and the number of scholars endowed with the Nobel Prize in Medicine, the areas of health sciences and biomedical research related to the awards and the motivations of the annually attributed Nobel Prize in Medicine provide a complete and stimulating historical and epistemological panorama of medicine, biology and health sciences in the course of the XX and XXI centuries. (www.actabiomedica.it)

The Nobel Prize in Medicine 2020 for the Discovery of Hepatitis C Virus: Transforming Hepatology

On Viruses, Discovery, and Recognition

The role of mammalian PPR domain proteins in the regulation of mitochondrial gene expression

Nobel Laureates and Their Medical Schools: Who Selected Whom?

Esther Miriam Lederberg

Since the concept of the vaccine was developed by Edward Jenner in 1796, vaccinology has traveled a long way with gradual improvement toward developing better methods of formulation of vaccines. In this premises in the 1990s, Karikó and Weissman joined their hands and minds aiming at understanding how different RNA species interact with the immune system. During their long journey in this direction, they performed extensive studies involving well-conceived molecular biology-based experiments that resulted in a breakthrough discovery relating to RNA therapeutics in general and messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics in particular. In this endeavor, they developed mRNA technology that actually paved the path leading to the development of mRNA vaccine that has many advantages. In December 2019, when the deadly virus SARS-CoV-2 emerged, which, in no time, caused a pandemic as well as an epidemic, thereby throwing a fierce challenge to the total healthcare systems worldwide, it was possible to take care of that challenge through the formulation and manufacturing on a large scale the mRNA vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 using the above technology. Thus, mRNA technology has created a strong platform that has spelled out a great promise toward controlling any pathogen infection and saving human life through the development of mRNA vaccine at a quick pace. In this short review, an attempt will be made to highlight the contributions of Karikó and Weissman and how they led the formulation of a vaccine against COVID-19, which fetched them the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology, 2023.

Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Carol W. Greider and Jack W. Szostak have been jointly awarded the 100th Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for the discovery of “how chromosomes are protected by telomeres and the enzyme telomerase”. This discovery of basic research done in a primitive organism has been a breakthrough for the understanding of how cells successfully maintain cell division and turn into tumoral or senescent cells, with an important impact in human health and disease. Telomeres were fi rst described in 1930 by Hermann Muller (Nobel Prize 1945) and Barbara McClintock (Nobel Prize 1983) who observed in the fruit fl y (Drosophila melanogaster) and in maize (Zea mays) that natural chromosome ends had special properties and structures that played an essential function in their protection. These structures were called telomeres (from the Greek “telos” for end and “melos” for part) by Muller. Later, it was known that telomeres are terminal DNA-protein complexes that form capping structures in order to stabilize chromosome ends and prevent them from being recognized as DNA doublestrand breaks.

On the shoulders of worms

Nobel Prizes in Medicine: are clinicians out of fashion?

The 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to John O’Keefe, May-Britt Moser and Edvard I. Moser, researchers for their discoveries of cells that constitute a positioning system in the brain, an “inner GPS” in the brain. The Nobel Foundation affirm that the proof which demonstrate that their researches performed on rats also work on humans, is based on information obtained from brain imaging techniques and patients who have undergone neurosurgery. It is a mystery why the Nobel Foundation promotes with conviction that the 2014 Nobel Prize in Medicine winners has found the human brain Global Positioning System. Nowadays, recent researches lead to suspicion that many neuroscientists’ researches can be based with brain nanobots performed in Latin America, being one of the most suspicious, the BRAIN initiative, this project was promoted by The Klavi Foundation. The 2014 Nobel Prize in medicine winners have close relations with this foundation, Therefore, there is a strong suspicion that illicit human experimentation with brain nanobots would have been the real source of information about 2014 Nobel research.

The MRC at 100

Reverse Transcribing the Code for Chromosome Stability

На основе рассекреченных документов Нобелевского Комитета по физиологии или медицине в Стокгольме проведён наукометрический анализ процедуры выдвижений кандидатов на Нобелевскую премию по физиологии или медицине за 19011910 гг. в сравнении с номинированием по физике и химии, а также некоторые данные по номинациям и лауреатам до 1953 г. Показано, что за первые 10 лет номинированы представители 26 стран: Германия 65 чел., Франция 28, Италия 15, Великобритания 14, США 10, Австрия 9, Швейцария 9, Швеция 6, Венгрия 4, Россия 3, Дания 3, Бельгия 3, Польша 2, Норвегия 2, Чешская Республика 2, Панама 2, Нидерланды 1, Испания 1, Вьетнам 1, Япония 1, Малайзия 1, Финляндия 1, Румыния 1, Шри Ланка 1, Куба 1, Индия 1 чел. Всего номинировано 187 человек 1 085 раз (в среднем около шести номинаций на одного учёного). Получили Нобелевскую премию по физиологии или медицине 12 чел. всего из восьми европейских стран: Германия 4, Франция 2, Великобритания 1, Дания 1, Россия 1 (без И.И. Мечникова), Италия 1, Испания 1, Швейцария 1. Установлено 1 835 номинаторов за первое десятилетие детально показано, кого номинировал каждый из 12 лауреатов Нобелев-ской премии по физиологии или медицине первых 10 лет. Доказано, что в первое десятилетие сами лауреаты Нобелевской премии по физиологии или медицине пассивно участвовали в номинировании: менее 10 выдвинутых ими учёных были удостоены Нобелевской премии по физиологии или медицине. Показано, кого номинировали все российские номинаторы с 1901 по 1925 гг. Scientometric analysis of the procedure for nominating candidates for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for 19011910 in comparison with the nominations in physics and chemistry conducted based on declassified documents of the Nobel Committee in Physiology or Medicine in Stockholm, as well as some data on nominations and winners until 1953. It is shown that for the first 10 year representatives of 26 countries were nominated: Germany 65 persons, France 28, Italy 15, UK 14, USA 10, Austria 9, Switzerland 9, Sweden 6, Hungary 4, Russia 3, Denmark 3, Belgium 3, Poland (Russian Empire) 2, Norway 2, Czech Republic 2, Panama 2, Netherlands 1, Spain 1, Vietnam 1, Japan 1, Malaysia 1, Finland 1, Rumania 1, Sri Lanka 1, Cuba 1, India 1 person. Total nominated were 187 persons 1085 times (an average of about six nominations per scientist). The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine received 12 scientists from only eight European countries: Germany 4, France 2, Great Britain 1, Denmark 1, Russia 1 (without I.I. Mechnikov), Italy 1, Spain 1, Switzerland 1. 1 835 nominators for the first decade have been established it is shown detail who was nominated by each of the 12 winners of the first 10 years of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It was proved that in the first decade the Nobel Prize Winners in Physiology or Medicine themselves passively participated in the nomination: less than 10 of the scientists nominated by them were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. It showed who were nominated by all Russian nominators on 19011925.