Science
mRNA Vaccines Quiz
Karikó, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna — 50 questions on the platform that beat COVID and won a Nobel
Karikó, Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna — 50 questions on the platform that beat COVID and won a Nobel
Katalin Karikó was demoted, denied tenure, and had grants rejected for decades — before her mRNA modification breakthrough led to a Nobel and 13.7 billion COVID vaccine doses. The Hungarian-American biochemist spent years as a marginalised scientist at the University of Pennsylvania, convinced that modified mRNA could be a therapeutic platform despite being repeatedly told to abandon the work. Her 2005 paper with Drew Weissman on pseudouridine modification was quietly published; 15 years later it underpinned the fastest vaccine development in history, an emergency authorisation within 11 months of a new virus's genome being published, and the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. This quiz spans the biology, the people, the COVID vaccines, and where the mRNA platform is heading next.
Each round presents 10 randomized questions from a pool of 50, with four multiple-choice options and instant feedback after every answer. Your final score comes with a performance tier and shareable results.
You'll cover the 2005 Karikó-Weissman pseudouridine paper, lipid nanoparticle delivery, the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID vaccines and their EUA dates, the prefusion-stabilised spike protein design, Operation Warp Speed, Phase 3 trial efficacy figures, mRNA vaccines against cancer and RSV, the 2023 Nobel Prize, rare side effects like myocarditis, and next-generation saRNA and circRNA technologies.
Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman shared the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19. Their key 2005 paper showed that replacing uridine with pseudouridine in synthetic mRNA prevented the immune system from destroying it before it could work.
N1-methylpseudouridine (m1Ψ) is a modified nucleoside used in the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines instead of natural uridine. It was found to be more effective than simple pseudouridine at preventing innate immune activation (via toll-like receptors TLR7/8) while also increasing protein translation efficiency — making it the key modification enabling stable, effective mRNA vaccines.
BioNTech's team finalised the mRNA sequence for BNT162b2 within hours of the SARS-CoV-2 genome being uploaded to Virological.org on January 11, 2020 by Zhang Yongzhen and Eddie Holmes. The vaccine design took about a weekend. The full development and Phase 3 testing took about 11 months, receiving Emergency Use Authorization on December 11, 2020 — the fastest vaccine ever authorised.
Last updated: May 2026