Breast cancer genes could win the Nobel Prize in Medicine

Nobel Week now begins with the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

And after the pandemic years, all laureates, both those named this year and those who received the prizes during the pandemic, can look forward to participating in the grand Nobel celebration in Stockholm in December.

Who can get the prize in medicine or physiology this year?

- I am hoping for a very exciting American woman named Mary-Clare King, who is considered by many to be the queen of genetics.

She has been tipped to win the prize by many.

Mary-Clare King is the one who found the two hereditary genes BRCA1 and BRCA2 that greatly increase the risk of breast cancer and ovarian cancer.

Her important research led to the understanding that certain cancers are hereditary and that other genes that increase the risk of other diseases could also be identified.

- Mary-Clare King has also been involved in the work for human rights and, among other things, was able to identify children who were taken from their mothers during the dictatorship in Argentina and adopted.

Are there others that are also good for the medicine price?

- Another discovery that can be rewarded with the Nobel Prize this year concerns the dreaded disease ALS.

In 2006, two research teams independently managed to link a protein, TDP-43, to patients with ALS and a certain type of dementia, FTLD.

Here, there are two researchers, one in Japan, Masato Hasegawa, and one in the USA, Virginia Man-Yee Lee, who can receive the award.

Corona pandemic - can the new vaccine be praised?

- The mRNA vaccine that helped save countless lives during the corona pandemic was on the news already last year in the speculation about the Nobel Prize.

Perhaps the time has now become more ripe for that.

The mRNA vaccine is based on a completely new technology where the vaccine gives our immune system instructions so that it starts producing antibodies against attacking viruses.

Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó have already received the prestigious Lasker Prize for their discoveries and they can now both be in line for a Nobel Prize.

At 11:30 today at the earliest, we will know who or who will be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2022. Watch the press conference on SVT play from 11:25 or on svt.se.