00:00 The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to a pair of scientists who
00:06 developed the technology that led to the mRNA COVID vaccines.
00:09 Professors Kathleen Kerikou and Drew Weissman will share the prize.
00:14 As per reports, the technology was experimental before the pandemic but has now been given
00:18 to millions of people around the world to protect them against serious COVID-19.
00:23 Reports revealed that the same mRNA technology is now being researched for other diseases,
00:27 including cancer.
00:29 The Nobel Prize committee said, "The laureates contributed to the unprecedented rate of vaccine
00:34 development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times."
00:39 Both the scientists were reportedly told they had won by telephone this morning.
00:43 Now, let's understand their work that helped save millions of lives.
00:48 Vaccines train the immune system to recognize and fight threats such as viruses or bacteria.
00:53 Traditional vaccine technology has been based on dead or weakened versions of the original
00:58 virus or bacterium or by using fragments of the infectious agent.
01:02 In contrast, messenger ribonucleic acid or mRNA vaccines use a completely different approach.
01:08 During the COVID pandemic, the Moderna and Pfizer or BioNTech vaccines were both based
01:13 on mRNA technology.
01:15 Professor Kerikou and Professor Weissman met in the early 1990s when they were working
01:19 at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States.
01:22 Back then, their idea was not paid much heed but now it has managed to save millions.
01:27 An mRNA COVID vaccine contains the genetic instructions for building one component, a
01:32 protein, from the coronavirus.
01:34 When this is injected into the body, human cells start producing lots of the viral protein.
01:38 The immune system recognizes these as foreign, so it attacks and has learned how to fight
01:43 the virus and therefore has a head start when future infections occur.
01:47 As per records, the big idea behind the technology is that one can rapidly develop a vaccine
01:52 against almost anything as long as one knows the right genetic instructions to use.
01:58 This makes it far faster and more flexible than traditional approaches to vaccine development.
02:02 There are even experimental approaches using the technology that are teaching patients'
02:07 bodies how to fight their own cancers.
02:10 Professors Kerikou and Weissman made the crucial breakthroughs that made mRNA vaccines happen.
02:16 Katalin Kerikou is now a professor at Szeged University in Hungary and Drew Weissman is
02:22 still working as a professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
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