In 2021, GEN and the Rosalind Franklin Society hosted a webinar in which Katalin Karikó, PhD, walked through the history of mRNA and the advances that led to its role in the COVID-19 vaccine, including the discovery of the critically important modifications. At the time, Karikó had been named the winner of the Vilcek Foundation award. Now, together with Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, she is the most recent winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.