Two scientists have won this year’s Nobel Prize in medicine for discoveries they made at the University of Pennsylvania which led to the creation of mRNA vaccines not only against COVID but which may be used to develop other shots.

Hungarian-American Katalin Kariko was senior vice-president and head of RNA protein replacement at BioNTech until 2022 and has since acted as an adviser to the company.

She’s also a professor at the University of Szeged in Hungary and adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.

Her co-winner is American Drew Weissman, who’s professor in vaccine research at the Perelman School.

The Nobel Prize panel says they changed ”our understanding of how mRNA interacts with our immune system.”

Injecting lab-grown mRNA into the body set off an inflammatory reaction that usually destroyed it.

The two scientists figured out a slight modification to the building blocks of RNA which made it sneaky enough to get past the immune system’s radar.