— https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMcibr2111445
In terms of prestige in medical research, the Lasker award is the thinnest of steps beneath the Nobel Prize.
This year’s Lasker award was just announced: it goes to Weissman and Karikó for their discovery that replacing the uridine nucleoside in mRNA with pseudouridine attenuates the body’s immune response against what would otherwise be perceived as an infection.
Their work was one of the key discoveries that made possible the mRNA vaccines that have saved so many lives. I hope they are under consideration for the Nobel Prize.
A well deserved congratulations to Drs. Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman.