Article reprint source: AI DreamWorks
Original source: New Wisdom
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Who would have thought that ChatGPT’s prediction would come true!
The 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has been announced.
The winners are Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for their discovery of nucleobase modifications that enabled the development of an effective mRNA vaccine against the new coronavirus.
The development of mRNA vaccines has saved millions of lives and curbed the spread of the epidemic.
It can be said that with the advent of mRNA vaccines, the global fight against the new coronavirus epidemic has changed.
mRNA vaccine technology is a popular technology in many people's minds and can be said to be what everyone expects.
Thanks to their groundbreaking research, an efficient new coronavirus mRNA vaccine was developed rapidly, and they have won many major awards, including the 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Science, the 2021 Lasker Awards for Basic Medical Research, the 2023 Gairdner Prize, the Tang Prize, the Israeli Harvey Prize, etc.
To be honest, the story behind the mRNA vaccine can be said to be an inspirational legend.
More than 20 years ago, Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó collaborated at the University of Pennsylvania to study mRNA as a potential therapeutic approach.
In 2005, they achieved a landmark advance in their research by revealing how to alter mRNA so that it could be used therapeutically and developing an effective strategy that allows mRNA to be delivered into the body to reach the correct target.
Before them, mRNA vaccines developed to protect against infectious diseases were not effective and safe in stimulating a protective immune system response in animal models. The 2005 study and subsequent findings led to successful animal and human trials.
ChatGPT actually hit the target?
As soon as the result was announced, netizens excitedly told each other that they had actually guessed it!
ChatGPT, which bet on the correct result, stood out even more.
Previously, the latest article in Nature stated that fine-tuned large models, including ChatGPT, can greatly enhance the ability to predict Nobel Prize winners.
In the 9.30 article, we asked ChatGPT the following prompt: "Name three major discoveries in chemistry, physics, physiology or medicine made by living scientists who have not yet won a Nobel Prize."
Combined with the latest Bing networking features, ChatGPT gave this answer:
In Physiology or Medicine - Development of mRNA vaccines: The rapid development and deployment of mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 is a monumental achievement. "While some scientists have received recognition, others have not received a Nobel Prize."
When ChatGPT was asked to predict the 2023 Nobel Prize winner, it did not give a real answer based on online search results, and reiterated that "some chemists predict that the development of mRNA vaccines may win the 2023 Nobel Prize in Chemistry."
Rounding it off, even if ChatGPT got it right!
mRNA research was coldly received 30 years ago
At the scene, the speaker introduced the significance of mRNA in delaying the new coronavirus epidemic.
In our cells, the genetic information encoded in DNA is transferred into messenger RNA (mRNA), which is used as a template for protein production.
In the 1980s, an efficient method for producing mRNA without cell culture, called in vitro transcription, was introduced. This decisive step accelerated the development of molecular biology applications in many fields.
The idea of using mRNA technology for vaccines and therapeutic purposes has also begun to take off, but obstacles remain. In vitro transcribed mRNA is considered unstable and difficult to deliver, requiring the development of complex carrier lipid systems to encapsulate mRNA.
In addition, mRNA produced in vitro can cause inflammatory responses. Therefore, developing mRNA technology for clinical purposes was initially difficult.
These obstacles did not stop Katalin Karikó.
In the early 1990s, when she was an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania, she had always wanted to realize her vision of using messenger RNA as a therapeutic drug, but she had trouble convincing funders.
She was joined by her colleague, immunologist Drew Weissman.
He is interested in dendritic cells, which play an important role in immune surveillance and activation of vaccine-induced immune responses. In the collaboration, they focused on how different RNA types interact with the immune system.
Unexpected breakthrough
Karikó and Weissman noticed that dendritic cells recognized the transcribed mRNA as foreign substances in vitro, which led to their activation and the release of inflammatory signaling molecules.
They wondered why mRNA transcribed in vitro was considered foreign, while mRNA from mammalian cells did not elicit the same response.
Karikó and Weissman realized that some key properties must distinguish different types of mRNA.
RNA contains four bases, abbreviated A, U, G, and C, which correspond to A, T, G, and C in DNA.
Karikó and Weissman knew that bases in RNA from mammalian cells are often chemically modified, but this is not the case for mRNA transcribed in vitro.
They wondered whether the lack of altered bases in the in vitro-transcribed RNA could explain the unwanted inflammatory response.
To investigate this, they synthesized different mRNA variants, each with a unique chemical change in the bases, and then delivered them to dendritic cells.
The results were striking: When the base modification was included in the mRNA, the inflammatory response was virtually abolished. This paradigm shift in our understanding of how cells recognize and respond to different forms of mRNA.
It immediately became clear to Karikó and Weissman that their discovery had far-reaching implications for the use of mRNA as a therapeutic. These groundbreaking results were published in 2005, 15 years before the COVID-19 pandemic.
Finally, the outside world began to take an interest in mRNA technology.
After the COVID-19 outbreak, two base-modified mRNA vaccines encoding SARS-CoV-2 surface proteins were developed at record speed. Their protective efficacy is about 95%, and both vaccines were approved as early as December 2020.
Several other vaccines against SARS-CoV-2 were quickly introduced subsequently, and in total more than 13 billion doses of COVID-19 vaccines have been administered worldwide.
Vaccines have saved millions of lives and prevented many more from getting sick, allowing the world to return to normal.
By discovering the importance of mRNA base modifications, Karikó and Weissman have made an important contribution during one of the greatest health crises of our time.
Nobel Prize-winning weathervane
As early as 2021, Batalin Karikó and Drew Weissman won the Lasker Award, known as the Nobel Prize weathervane, for their breakthrough discoveries based on mRNA.
In addition to providing a highly effective vaccine development tool to quell the devastating Covid-19 pandemic, this innovation is also driving progress in the treatment and prevention of a range of different diseases.
In principle, mRNA can be used to transform cells into factories that produce any desired protein. This approach could be used to replenish scarce vital substances or introduce microbial components as vaccines.
Furthermore, unlike DNA, mRNA does not threaten the integrity of the recipient cell's genome, as it neither integrates into chromosomes nor interrupts resident genes or causes other mutational damage.
Katalin Kariko
Katalin Karikó was born in a small town in Hungary.
As a child, Karikó was full of curiosity. He loved climbing trees to look at bird nests and watching neighboring cows give birth.
Although she had never actually met a scientist, Karikó decided that this was what she was going to do.
In high school, her teacher gave her a book called "The Stress of Life". Hans Selye wrote in the book: "Adopting the right attitude can turn negative stress into positive stress." This book also became her guide to becoming a scientist in the future.
When she experiences failure, whether as a student or in the lab, she thinks of Selye’s words—adopt the right attitude and look for ways to improve, work harder, be more creative, and perform better.
Karikó always tries to focus on what he can do, rather than wasting time on what he can't do.
Karikó began studying RNA as a graduate student in 1978, and she has been passionate about this fragile molecule ever since, from how it is made and modified to how it is degraded or converted into proteins.
She enjoys the mystery of RNA-related phenomena, revisiting experimental results that were unexplained decades ago, and she feels great when scientific mysteries she has been trying to solve are eventually solved by others.
Together with her colleagues, she gradually found solutions based on the discoveries of her predecessors and created the best RNA for treatment. However, she never imagined that it would be used to make vaccines to fight the epidemic raging around the world.
To young girls who want to become scientists, Karikó says: “Stay curious, have the right attitude, and keep going no matter how long and winding the road may be.”
Drew Weissman
At the University of Pennsylvania, Dr. Karikó and Drew Weissman study mRNA as a medical intervention. The promising possibilities in this area of medicine are exciting because it is an area that has been underexplored.
Every interesting spark in the experiment motivated the two to move forward - they designed and conducted experiments together, often exchanging emails in the early hours of the morning and could not wait until the next day.
Even though the research they began more than two decades ago culminated in a major discovery that led to a vaccine for the coronavirus, the work continues.
Scientists know that the work is never finished, and just as the data on the page is black and white, there is no end to the realization and use of scientific discoveries.
This work will never end, because we need scientific breakthroughs: not only for the current epidemic, but also for autoimmune diseases, neurological diseases, post-traumatic recovery, and other infectious diseases.
While discovering and answering his own curiosities is thrilling, making an impact on humanity is what excites him most.
After receiving the 2021 Lasker Award, Drew Weissman said:
Today, while I take a second to appreciate the good fortune that our work has helped millions of people around the world, I also want to recognize the scientists who are now in their labs doing work that may lead to amazing things. Tomorrow morning, I will be back in my lab with you... or maybe in a few hours if I can't wait. Together, we will see what the future holds.
Many people predicted success, including ChatGPT
Under the relevant hot posts on Zhihu, many friends gave accurate predictions in advance.
Image source: Zhiyou "America's No. 1 Macho Man"
Image source: Zhiyou "Jisa Academy Lengzhe"
Image source: Zhiyou "Dr. Philip"
It was beyond many people's expectations that this year's Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to such a popular research. After all, last year's results were really a surprise.
In the days leading up to the awards ceremony, there have been predictions like this online:
According to the rules of previous years, there will be a 2:1 ratio between general basic and clinical.
In 2021, it was awarded to David J. Julius and Ardem Patapoutian (research in the fields of pain and touch), and in 2022, it was awarded to Svante Pääbo (extinct ancient human genomes and human evolution). For two consecutive years, the award was in the basic field. According to the rules, this year it is likely to be awarded to clinical applications.
Some people also predict that since the awards were given to relatively niche achievements in the past two years, this year it may be more likely that the awards will be given to achievements that are closer to the masses.
Unexpectedly, the prediction came true.
The potential of ChatGPT has once again been confirmed.
References:
https://www.zhihu.com/question/619698448?utm_id=0
https://laskerfoundation.org/winners/modified-mrna-vaccines/
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2023/press-release/