Nobel Prize in Medicine, 2023

• Catalin Carico and Drew Weissman are the winners of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine.

• They have been jointly awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on messenger RNA (mRNA) technology that has paved the way for groundbreaking COVID-19 vaccines.

• Catalin Karikó is a Hungarian-American biochemist. Drew Weissman is an American physician-scientist.

• The Nobel Prize committee said their groundbreaking findings fundamentally change the understanding of how mRNA interacts with a human's immune system.

• It says he contributed to vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times.

• mRNA vaccines were approved for use in December 2020.

• mRNA vaccines deliver genetic molecules that tell cells which proteins to make.

• They differ from traditional vaccines, which use a weakened virus or a key fragment of the virus's protein.

• The Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech vaccines were based on mRNA technology. The technology was experimental before the pandemic.

• Kariko and Weissman have won the prestigious Lasker Award in 2021. The prize is often seen as a precursor to the Nobel Prize.