Suppression of RNA recognition by toll-like receptors: The impact of nucleoside modification and the evolutionary origin of RNA.

Karikó and Weissman discovered the nucleoside modifications that suppress the immungenicity of RNA, leading to their patents for the application of non-immunogenic, nucleoside-modified RNA (modRNA). This technology was licensed by Pfizer BioNTech and Moderna to develop their mRNA COVID-19 vaccines. Order of authorship in the original publication: Karikó, Buckstein, Ni, Weissman.

In 2023 Karikó and Weissman shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19."

Digital facsimile from sciencedirect.com at this link.