mRNA Vaccine Platform

Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, USA, patent 8,278,036 of 2012. Modified nucleosides made mRNA medicine possible.

Overview

Kariko and Weissman's 2005 discovery that pseudouridine-substituted mRNA dodges immune attack, patented through UPenn as 8,278,036 and family, sat underfunded for years. BioNTech, Moderna, and Acuitas lipid nanoparticles built on it; COVID turned the platform into billions of doses in 2020. The pair shared the 2023 Nobel in medicine. Patent royalties flowed to the university, not the inventors, renewing Bayh-Dole debates. Cancer and flu mRNA trials now stack on this filing.