Stockholm: The Nobel Season is open on Monday with the pioneer of MRNA Covid-19 vaccines and research on the immune system for drug gifts, which started the week of award against the background of a pandemic.
Breakthrough in breast cancer, a new approach to rheumatology care, as well as research to epigenetic, cell adhesion and antibiotic resistance is also believed to have good opportunities to win, experts surveyed by AFP.
The two names have been prominent this year, given the ongoing pandemic: Kariko Catalal and Drew Weissman in the United States, Pioneers of Vaccines and Professor Messenger RNA (MRNA) at Pennsylvania University.
Their findings, published in 2005, opened the way for the development of Pfizer / Bionalech and Moderna vaccines, which have been injected into more than one billion people worldwide.
This technology also shows promising results for use against other diseases.
The creator of the prize, the inventor of the Swedish Dynamite Alfred Nobel, which lies in his will that the award must go to those who have given “the biggest benefits for mankind” – make a clear choice couple for some people.
“It would be a mistake for the Nobel Committee not to give a prize to the MRNA vaccine this year, even if it was rather risky,” said Ulrika Bjorksten, Head of the Swedish public radio science.
He recorded a pair job could also be feasible for the Nobel Chemical Prize, to be announced on Wednesday.
However, many believe that the duo – who hold senior positions in the German Laboratory Bionech – may have to wait for an award.
Various committees assigned to the winner’s selection for science gifts are known for allowing years or even decades to pass so that the true impact of the invention can be evaluated before the Nobel is given.
In theory, the Nobel will also determine the prize must start working last year, but this is rarely noticed.
“I don’t think it will happen.
I only think of the Committee’s choice conservatism.
Of course they will be considered in the coming years but I doubt this year,” David Pendlebury of Clarive Analytics, which published a list of possibilities of winners.
Pendlebury said he instead believes the prize is likely to go to the American Max Cooper, 88, and Jacques Miller France-Australia, 90, for their discovery that the white blood cells that are important for the human immune system are divided into two categories, B and T lymphocytes.
Sel-T also plays a role in understanding immunity to Covid-19.
In 2019, both of them received prestigious LASKER gifts – often regarded as Precursors to Nobel.
But the fact that they have not received a nobleman is widely seen as an anomaly.
“For both, there must be something we don’t know,” Pendlebury said.
Other researchers believed to be worthy of a nobleman include pioneers in the field of cell adhesion, such as Masatoshi Taktichi Japan, US-Finnish scientists Erkki Ruoslahti and British biologists Richard Hynes.
The study of how behavior and the environment can cause changes that influence how genes work – fields known as epigenetics – are also seen as possible, with America David Allis and America-Romania Michael Grunstein mentioned.
In the fight against breast cancer, Americans Dennis Slamon and Mary Claire King can win because they identify the risk gene, which has opened the way for care.
Other gene specialists, Lebanon-American Huda Zoghbi who found the gene responsible for Rett’s syndrome, also among potential recipients.
Australian-British Marc Feldmann and Briton Ravinder Maini have also been mentioned for years because they have identified the role of cytokines in rheumatoid arthritis.
Julian Davies England can also see his research on antibiotic resistance, serious public health problems, remembering that nod.
While the 2020 award was distributed in the middle of a pandemic, this was the first time the entire selection process had occurred under the shadow of Covid-19.
The nomination was closed at the end of January, and at that time last year the new Coronavirus was mostly limited to China.
The 2020 prize will finally conduct a virus research, despite the discovery of the Hepatitis C virus.
The Nobel season continued on Tuesday with awards for physics and Wednesday with chemistry, followed by a very anticipated prize for literature on Thursday and peace on Friday.
Economic gift ends in the season on Monday, October 11.
The Nobel-Nobel this year came with a check for 10 million Swedish Chronor ($ 1.1 million, one million euros).