It is the annual Nobel Week. And to begin the presentation of the famous awards, the Nobel Prize for Medicine will be awarded this Monday while the year, in this area, was marked by vaccines against Covid-19. Will this influence voters? The answer will come in Stockholm from 9:30 am (11:30 am in France).
For the 120th anniversary of the awards, breakthroughs against breast cancer, experts in cell adhesion, new avenues for treatments in rheumatology, champions of epigenetics or resistance to antibiotics could also collect the laurels. , according to experts polled by AFP.
Too good for messenger RNA?
Two names are necessary as much as they are debated for the speculations around the price of “physiology or medicine”: the Hungarian Katalin Kariko and the American Drew Weissman, pioneers of messenger RNA vaccines and professors at the American University of Pennsylvania . Their findings, published from 2005, paved the way for vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna laboratories, already injected into more than a billion people around the world to protect them from Covid-19. Their findings could alternatively be rewarded Wednesday in chemistry.
But the Nobel committee is known for its tendency to allow years or even decades to pass, out of scientific prudence, before awarding its richly endowed coronation (nearly one million euros per discipline). In theory, the Nobel Will wanted to reward the actions of the past year, but this instruction has never been respected since 1901.
A duo of 88 and 90 years old
The prize could therefore go to the American Max Cooper, 88, and the Australian of French origin Jacques Miller, 90, who would thus become the two oldest laureates to win the Nobel in medicine. The duo would especially finally be rewarded for having pierced the secret of the thymus.
Besides these two tandems that emerge as light favorites, many researchers have their chances, such as the pioneers of cell adhesion, the Japanese Masatoshi Takeichi, the American-Finnish Erkki Ruoslahti and the American Richard Hynes. Against breast cancer, Americans Dennis Slamon and Mary-Claire King could be sacred. The Australian-Briton Marc Feldmann and the Briton Ravinder Maini have been mentioned for years for their discoveries against rheumatoid arthritis.
The Nobel season will then continue in Stockholm on Tuesday with physics, Wednesday with chemistry, before the long-awaited and still very open literature prizes on Thursday and peace on Friday, the only prize awarded in Oslo. The Bank of Sweden’s prize in economics will be awarded next Monday.