It read like a script for a made-for-TV movie: Fighting peer rejection, job losses, and self-doubt, Katalin Karikó “spent decades researching the therapeutic possibilities of mRNA” because she was convinced it “could be used for something truly groundbreaking.” And it was: The Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines flowed from her work. But not the 2021 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine.
That will go to two U.S. scientists, David Julius of the University of California – San Francisco and Ardem Patapoutian of Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, for their “breakthrough” work on temperature and touch receptors (read story here), which is relevant to treatment of chronic pain and “other diseases” (details here).
Never mind the 5 million dead from Covid-19, and the potential for the mRNA vaccines made possible by Karikó’s and Weissman’s research to bring that carnage to a full stop. It hasn’t, of course, because of holdouts and other factors.
Will Karikó and her colleague, Dr. Drew Weissman, ever get Nobel recognition for their pioneering mRNA work? Maybe not, despite the huge impact of their research on one of the world’s biggest medical challenges. Historically, the Nobels have snubbed vaccines (see posting here), although Nobels were awarded for the discovery of insulin (to the wrong people) and streptomycin (to one of the co-discoverers, while overlooking the other), details here. But the guy who “invented” lobotomies was awarded one, apparently without much ethical forethought, despite “protests from the medical establishment.”
In short, the Nobel Prize for medical discoveries has a checkered history.
It takes nothing away from Julius and Patapoutian to suggest that Karikó and Weissman should have gotten it this time. Their work does seem to satisfy the Nobel poobahs’ insistence on recognizing basic research, as opposed to vaccine development; they didn’t develop the vaccines. (Maybe that’s why they were passed over? Could the Nobel committee be guilty of McConnell inconsistency?) Maybe they’re under consideration for a future award, and the Nobel committee just needs more time to think about it, to make sure they’re not making another Lobotomy Mistake (seems unlikely; there are times when the Nobels need the recipients more than the recipients need a Nobel, and this may be one of them).
Or maybe they’re holding out for Karikó and Weisman to find a cure for Trumpism. That might be a long wait. Is there a way to reverse lobotomies?
Like the Mariners better luck next year. Could be they did not make the cutoff or were not nominated. All of the Nobel prizes suffer bias, and there is the requirement of being alive, and sometimes plenty of noteworthy potential recipients.
Names of nominees aren’t made public, so we don’t know, but they’re definitely alive.