In recent years, the progress in life sciences and medicine can be described as "rising progress". On October 3, the promulgation of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine will soon kick off the "Nobel Prize Week". Like in previous years, various predictions and conjectures about the winners have been in full swing. The decision method of the Nobel Prize is highly confidential. The list of candidates and the voting records of nominees will be sealed for 50 years, and almost no internal information will be disclosed in advance until the award is announced. This also makes the award prediction quite challenging. However, many awards in the field of life sciences serve as the "barometer" of the Nobel Prize.
Against the backdrop of the new crown epidemic, mRNA vaccine technology is the most popular call for winning awards for two consecutive years. Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman from University of Pennsylvania have swept five important awards including the Lask Award and the Science Breakthrough Award , and are considered to be "just a matter of time" to win the Nobel Prize in the future. Through the modification of messenger mRNA, the therapeutic technology they developed has enabled the rapid development of efficient new crown mRNA vaccines.
, which has achieved remarkable results in predicting the Nobel Prize, has turned its attention to clinical applications this year. Virginia Man-Yee Lee, a Chinese scholar from Penn University, discovered that TDP43 protein aggregation is a pathological feature of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal degeneration (FTLD), and has made outstanding contributions to the research on neurodegenerative diseases.
In 2006, Li Wenyu's pioneering paper published in the American weekly journal Science has been cited more than 4,000 times. Masato Hasegawa, director of the Department of Brain Neuroscience at the Tokyo Institute of Medical Sciences in Japan, published similar independent research results several months later than her, so the two were believed to be likely to win awards at the same time.
In addition, two scientists who have made groundbreaking discoveries on the genetic basis of the disease are favored by the "Citation Laurel Award". Mary-Claire King of the University of Washington reveals the role of BRCA gene mutations in breast cancer and ovarian cancer, completely changing cancer screening; Stuart Orkin of Harvard Medical School discovered the genetic changes behind various types of thalassemia, thus bringing promising gene therapy to hereditary blood diseases.
It is worth mentioning that the Lask Award, which was just issued this year, was won by Hong Kong scholar Lu Yuming . In 1997, he discovered fetal DNA in his mother's blood, which completely changed the clinical practice of screening for fetal genetic abnormalities. Later, he realized the non-invasive prenatal testing of Down syndrome , which is now used by millions of people every year. Lu Yuming will also become a strong contender for the future Nobel Prize.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine has certain periodic rules, and the distribution ratio between basic biological discoveries and clinical applications is about 2:1. Discovery in neurological diseases, cancer or infectious diseases wins every decade or so. For example, the treatment of roundworms and malaria in 2015, immuno-oncology in 2018, and hepatitis C in 2020, are all more clinically focused awards.
In the basic field, according to statistics from Dr. Xu Yixun, who has been paying attention to the history of science related to the Nobel Prize for many years, as of 2021, a total of 16 awards have been awarded to neurobiology, 15 awards have been awarded to genetics, 13 awards have been awarded to biochemistry related to metabolism, and 8 awards have been awarded to signaling in cells. For example, the molecular mechanism of the biological clock operation in 2017, and the basic principles of cells perceive oxygen at the molecular level in 2019. Last year's temperature and tactile receptors belonged to the field of neurobiology. This also means that another big winner last year's winning streak - the revolutionary technology that affects the research of neuroscience , may have to wait a few years before winning the award.
This year marks the 200th anniversary of the death of the founder of genetics, Mendel , and genetics is also a hot field.Michael Grunstein of UCLA proved that histones are associated with regulation of gene expression; David Allis of Rockefeller University first discovered histone acetyltransferase, which can activate and regulate gene activity. This discovery marks the rise of epigenetics , which researchers and bio-enterprises are now using it to treat human diseases. The two shared the 2018 Lask Award and the 2016 Gruber Genetics Award.
The last time I won the Nobel Prize in epigenetics, it can be traced back to 2006, when Roger Kornberg won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for solving the mystery of how RNA transcripts assemble molecules. Therefore, the above work may win two awards: Physiology or Medicine Prize or Chemistry Prize.
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