Huge news just in
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to a pair of scientists who developed the technology leading to the mRNA Covid vaccine.
Professors Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman will share the prize.
The technology has been experimented with before the pandemic but now it’s been given to millions around the world to help protect them against covid.
The same technology using mRNA is now being researched to help battle cancer.
The mRNA covid vaccine contains the genetic instructions for building one component from the coronavirus.
When injected into our bodies, our cells start producing lots of the viral protein.
Our immune systems then recognise these as foreign before attacking them and eventually learning how to fight the virus.
Last year the Nobel Prize went to Svante Paabo for his work on human evolution.
Before that it went to David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian for their work on how the body senses things.
And in 2020 the award went to Michael Houston, Harvey Alter, and Charles Rice for the discovery of Hepatitis C.
