Nobel for mRNA vaccine shows power of perseverance

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Some of the joy of today’s prize is that it rewards Prof Kariko’s many decades of effort to convince the world mRNA held promise as a therapeutic. After coming to the United States from Hungary in the mid-1980s, she struggled to get financial support for her research, moving from laboratory to laboratory to try to keep her work alive until a now-legendary encounter with Dr Weissman over a Xerox machine while at the University of Pennsylvania.

While biotech companies are working on the problem, it also will require ongoing support of basic science like the work done by Prof Kariko and Dr Weissman. The US Congress should not forget that when considering painful cuts to the budget of the National Institutes of Health, the agency responsible for so much foundational research. Today’s prize is another reminder that the slog of basic science can have unexpected payoffs – and should be both celebrated and funded.

For qns on failure and applied science vs basic science.....