They received the Lasker Prize for their discovery behind the mRNA vaccine

After the Nobel Prize, the Lasker Prize is one of the most prestigious awards in the field of medical research. It is often said that the award, awarded in three different categories, gives an indication that the award winners are well placed for a future Nobel Prize.

This year, the Lasker Clinical Research Award goes to Katalin Kariko From Biontech and Drew Wiseman from the University of Pennsylvania for discovering a new treatment technique based on the modification of messenger RNA (mRNA). With the help of technology, the body’s cells can be persuaded to produce a protein that the body’s immune system learns to interact with.

“This breakthrough enabled the rapid development of highly effective coronavirus vaccines. In addition to providing a tool to quell a devastating pandemic, this discovery supports the development of treatments and prevention for a variety of diseases,” the Lasker Foundation wrote in an article for the Lasker newspaper. Stimulus.

The Lasker Prize for Basic Medical Research is awarded to three researchers for their discovery of microbial light-sensitive proteins that can activate or silence individual brain cells, and their use in developing optogenetics, a technology that has revolutionized neuroscience. Acclaimed researchers are Karl Desiroth At Stanford University in the United States of America, two German researchers Dieter Osterhelt at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry in Martinsried and Peter Hegman at Humboldt University in Berlin.

Category III Prize, for Special Contributions to Medical Sciences, awarded to a former Nobel Laureate David Baltimore at the California Institute of Technology. He has been awarded the “breadth and beauty of his discoveries in virology, immunology, and cancer” as well as for his academic leadership and direction by eminent researchers.

The Lasker Prize is awarded by the Lasker Foundation, which was founded by an American advertising pioneer Albert Lasker (1880-1952) and his wife Mary Woodard Lasker (1900-1994).