The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded this year to two Tang Prize laureates for their work on developing the technology that led to the mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
The Tang Prize Foundation says the honor announced Monday by the Nobel Prize committee went to Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, both of whom were recipients of the Tang Prize in 2022 for their achievements in biopharmaceutical science.
The foundation poin out that it was the third time that Tang Prize recipients were later named Nobel laureates, with the first occasion coming in 2018 when 2014 Tang Prize winners James Allison and Tasuku Honjo won the Nobel Prize in medicine.
Tang Prize Foundation CEO Chern Jenn-chuan praised the two scientists for paving the way for the successful development of SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, and that their work not only revolutionized vaccinology but also signaled a paradigm shift in protein therapy that ushered in the era of RNA-based therapies.
