The Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded. For research that allowed the development of mRNA vaccines against COVID-19

Traditionally, the announcement of the winners in medicine and physiology begins the Nobel week. On Tuesday, we will know the winner or winners in physics, and on Wednesday – in chemistry. On Thursday, the Swedish Academy will announce the name of the winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, and on Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee will announce the awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize. Next week, on Monday, we will know the winner or winners of the so-called economics Nobel Prize.

Nobel Prize in Medicine awarded

The Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded to Natalina Karikó and Drew Weissma for discoveries that allowed them to develop effective drugs against COVID-19. The justification explained that their discoveries regarding mRNA modification helped in this. As the Nobel Committee said, the work of this year’s Nobel Prize winners in medicine helped save millions of lives.

The award, commonly called “in medicine”, was described in the founder’s will as a distinction in “physiology or medicine”. And that’s how it is awarded – in one of these fields. The winner or winners are selected by the assembly of professors from the Karolinska Institute in Solna near Stockholm, a medical university and one of Sweden’s largest research centers in the field of biomedical sciences.

The highest ever Nobel Prize payment

The Nobel Foundation recently announced that the prize amount has been raised to its highest level ever. This year, the winners will receive not 10 million crowns, as before, but 11 million crowns, i.e. over 900,000 crowns in each of the six fields. The Nobel Prize also includes a Nobel gold medal and a calligraphed diploma.

The awards, in accordance with the founder’s will, are awarded for outstanding scientific achievements – in the field of physiology or medicine, physics, chemistry, as well as literary and peace achievements – for contributions to societies and humanity. The prize fund comes from interest on Alfred Nobel’s estate and is administered by the Nobel Foundation. The youngest award is for economists, which was not established by Nobel, but founded by Sweden in 1968.

There are seven Poles among the Nobel Prize winners, with Maria Skłodowska-Curie receiving this distinction twice. For the first time – in 1903 in the field of physics, together with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel, and for the second time – in 1911, this time for achievements in the field of chemistry. In 1983, the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to Lech Wałęsa. Poles received most Nobel prizes in the field of literature. In 1905, it was awarded to Henryk Sienkiewicz, in 1924 to Władysław Reymont, in 1980 to Czesław Miłosz, in 1996 to Wisława Szymborska, and in 2019 – for 2018 – Olga Tokarczuk received the Nobel Prize in Literature.