Editorial | Nobel medicine prize winners saluted by all

The world owes a great debt of gratitude to the scientists who won the Nobel Prize for medicine on Monday for groundbreaking research that paved the way for vaccines against Covid-19. Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman spent decades developing messenger RNA (mRNA) technology that made possible life-saving vaccines such as those produced by drug giants Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.

Unlike traditional vaccines using weakened viruses or parts of a virus protein, mRNA jabs use messenger RNA molecules to teach the body to generate specialised proteins and activate immune cells to target viruses. Colleagues at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States, the pair were praised by the Nobel jury for contributing to the “unprecedented rate of vaccine development during one of the greatest threats to human health in modern times”.

Although 68-year-old Kariko has been honoured several times for her work, she struggled in her early career to convince others to support her research. The Hungarian-born biochemist put her perseverance down to her migrant background. While in Hong Kong in August to receive an honorary doctorate of science from Chinese University, Kariko thanked those “who tried to make my life miserable, because they made me stronger … and resilient”. A shining light for female scientists, Kariko is the 13th woman to be awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in its 122-year history. The last was Tu Youyou, who in 2015 became the first Chinese woman to be honoured for her work on an anti-malarial drug.

Prize-winning recognition of mRNA technology should also fuel Hong Kong’s hopes of becoming an international biotech hub. Moderna says it will work with city scientists on mRNA vaccine development. Patrick Bergstedt, senior vice-president and head of emerging markets for Moderna, said the city was a solid choice for clinical research with “excellent” healthcare, academic and hospital systems as well as aspirations to be a Greater Bay Area biotech hub.

More Nobel winners will be announced this week. But it is worth pausing to take stock of how the world, including our city, has benefited from the work of the medical pioneers who will collect their medals in Stockholm in December.