(Stockholm) Treatments for breast cancer? Messenger RNA vaccines? Progress in disease detection? The Nobel Prize for Medicine opens the season of famous philanthropic awards on Monday, under the dark screed of an ongoing war in Europe.
Posted at 12:47 a.m.
Born into the optimism of the Belle Époque more than 120 years ago, the Nobel Prize winners find themselves again confronted with the telescoping between the celebration of “benefactors of humanity” and a year particularly heavy in tragedies.
The award for medicine or physiology is announced around 11:30 a.m. in Stockholm. Physics will follow on Tuesday, chemistry on Wednesday, then the two most anticipated prizes: literature on Thursday and peace on Friday, the only prize announced in Oslo.
The economy price, of more recent creation, will close the 2022 vintage next Monday.
For medicine, the name of a woman comes up regularly this year among prediction experts: that of the American geneticist Mary-Claire King.
In 1990, she discovered a gene responsible for breast cancer, the most common malignancy in women.
At 76, she could be crowned with other pioneers of a therapeutic antibody against breast cancer, her compatriot Dennis Slamon and the German Axel Ullrich, at the origin of the trastuzumab treatment.
If the Nobel jury breaks with its cautious tendency to crown old discoveries, another woman has every chance for her role against the COVID-19 pandemic.
male dominance
Already crowned for two years with almost all the other major medical awards, the American-Hungarian Katalin Kariko, long a marginalized researcher, would obtain the Holy Grail for her role as a pioneer in messenger RNA vaccines.
“There is not only the direct benefit that this has brought us in the face of the pandemic, but it is also the first of a series of very promising applications of this technology”, underlines Ulrika Björksten, head of the scientific service at the Swedish public radio.
In the event of a prize for vaccines, she could be crowned with her American sidekick Drew Weissman and the Canadian Pieter Cullis.
Last year, the prize went to two Americans, David Julius and Ardem Patapoutian, for their discoveries on how touch works.
A price related to physiology which suggests a more medical price this year, according to David Pendlebury. This head of the Clarivate organization maintains a closely followed list of several dozen Nobel Prize winners for scientific prizes.
Put him a coin on Mme King and Mr. Slamon this year, but also cites Hong Kong’s Yuk Ming Dennis Lo.
This pioneer has developed a non-invasive prenatal diagnosis, making it possible to limit the use of heavier amniocentesis.
With this technique then emerged a series of so-called “liquid” biopsies. “With a simple blood or blood plasma test, you can detect all kinds of possible problems or illnesses,” Pendleblury points out.
Male American or US-based researchers have still largely dominated Nobel science prize winners in recent decades, despite juries’ efforts to crown more women.
The 2021 Nobel vintage was no exception to the rule, with 12 laureates and only one laureate. All the scientific prizes had gone to men.
Anti-Putin?
For literature on Thursday, critics interviewed by AFP are leaning towards a better known name, after two winners who emerged from the shadows, the American poet Louise Glück in 2020 and the British novelist of Tanzanian origin Abdulrazak Gurnah last year.
The American Joyce Carol Oates, the French Annie Ernaux or Maryse Condé, the Russian Ludmila Oulitskaïa or the Canadian Margaret Atwood have taken care of the parity efforts of the jury in recent years.
On the betting sites, the Frenchman Michel Houellebecq is currently the favorite. He is ahead of Salman Rushdie, victim of an attempted murder in August.
But it is the price of peace that should once again have the most impact this year.
After having already co-consecrated the Russian journalist Dmitri Mouratov-with his Filipino colleague Maria Ressa-the Norwegian committee will award an anti-Putin prize after the invasion of Ukraine?
Not since World War II has an interstate conflict been fought so close to Oslo.
The International Criminal Court, responsible for investigating war crimes in Ukraine, as well as the International Court of Justice, also based in the Netherlands, are mentioned. Just like the imprisoned Russian opponent Alexei Navalny or the Belarusian opponent Svetlana Tikhanovskaïa.
In the event of an award centered on climate and the environment, experts cite Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, possibly jointly with British naturalist David Attenborough or other activists like Sudanese Nisreen Elsaim and Ghanaian Chibeze Ezekiel.