Funding, Deals & Partnerships: BIOLOGICS & MEDICAL DEVICES; BioMed e-Series; Medicine and Life Sciences Scientific Journal – http://PharmaceuticalIntelligence.com
LIVE – 50th Annual Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for work on messenger RNA, modification of Nucleic Acids applied in the development of COVID-19 Vaccines
LIVE – 50th Annual Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for work on messenger RNA, modification of Nucleic Acids applied in the development of COVID-19 Vaccines
50th Annual Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for work on messenger RNA, modification of Nucleic Acids applied in the development of COVID-19 Vaccines
Rosenstiel Award given to pioneering scientists behind COVID-19 vaccines
This year’s prize for distinguished work in basic medical research was awarded to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman for work on messenger RNA.
Courtesy Karikó/University of Pennsylvania Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman
For those of you who would like to share the recording of this event with others, or those of you who were not able to attend the web event, the recording of the program can be found here:
By engineering a modified version of the messenger RNA (mRNA) inside human cells and then developing a system to deliver it to its target, the two researchers laid the groundwork for the vaccines brought to fruition by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
“This award celebrates how basic research in molecular biology can be the foundation for applications that can affect the lives of us all,” said James Haber, the Abraham and Etta Goodman Professor of Biology and director of the Rosenstiel Basic Medical Sciences Research Center.
“Through their painstaking research into mRNA – and persistence despite setbacks – Weissman and Karikó laid the groundwork for vaccines that will save countless lives.”
Peter Gruber Endowed Chair in Neuroscience and 2017 winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Michael Rosbash said:
“Among the few positive consequences of the current pandemic are the successful efforts made worldwide to generate effective vaccines. The most creative of these rely on the new messenger RNA technology pioneered by Kariko and Weissman. This is a great story where individual initiative in basic science has ended up having a remarkable real-world impact.”
The Rosenstiel Award has had a distinguished record of identifying and honoring scientists who subsequently have been honored with the Lasker and Nobel Prizes. Thirty-six of 93 Rosenstiel Award winners have subsequently been awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology or in Chemistry.
A full list of awardees can be found on the award’s website.
The award will be presented on February 8 at 12 p.m. via webinar.
Karikó and Weissman began working together over 20 years ago when both were at U Penn.
At the time, many scientists didn’t believe mRNA, which transport instructions from DNA to the ribosomes for the production of proteins, could be the basis for a vaccine. In experiments, injecting mRNA into mice caused deadly inflammation.
But Karikó and Weissman pressed on, discovering a method of altering mRNA that enabled it to enter cells without triggering the body’s immune system. They did this by tweaking one of the four nucleosides that are the building blocks of mRNA.
Several years later, Karikó and Weissman devised a method of packaging mRNA inside a lipid nanoparticle — a small bubble of oil — so that the molecule didn’t fall apart as it traveled through the body.
“We basically tested every possible delivery system and found this was the best,” Weissman recently told BrandeisNOW.
The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines work by spurring human cells to produce the spike-shaped protein found on SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes the illness, and triggering the immune system to produce protective antibodies.
In general, mRNA vaccines have the advantage of being cheaper to produce than traditional vaccines for chickenpox, polio, flu or rabies. It’s also hoped they can be adapted to treat other infectious diseases such as genital herpes (which is caused by the herpes simplex virus), influenza, Zika and HIV.
“The COVID-19 vaccine breakthrough is a great example of how basic science innovations, such as the RNA technology pioneered by Weissman and Karikó, can have an enormous impact on advances in the biomedical sciences,” said biochemist Carol Fierke, the university’s new provost and executive vice president.
In addition to her post at BioNTech, Karikó is an adjunct associate professor at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Weissman is also director of vaccine research at the Perelman school’s division of infectious diseases.
LAST PAST 5 Years Recipients
Past Winners
49th (2019)
for their remarkable contributions to our understanding of the sensations of temperature, pain and touch
David Julius Morris Herzstein Chair in Molecular Biology and Medicine Professor and Chair, Department of Physiology School of Medicine The University of California, San Francisco San Francisco, CA USA
Ardem Patapoutian Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Professor, Department of Neuroscience The Scripps Research Institute La Jolla, CA USA
48th (2018)
for his fundamental and far-reaching studies of protein structure using X-ray crystallography
Steven C. Harrison Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Giovanni Armenise-Harvard Professor of Basic Medical Sciences Harvard Medical School Chief, Division of Molecular Medicine Boston Children’s Hospital Boston, MA USA
for her elucidation of the protection of telomeres and the maintenance of genome stability
Titia de Lange Leon Hess Professor American Cancer Society Research Professor Head, Laboratory of Cell Biology and Genetics Director, Anderson Center for Cancer Research The Rockefeller University New York, NY USA
in recognition of her pioneering work on the mechanisms of protein folding and the severe consequences of protein misfolding that are manifest in disease
Susan Lindquist (1949-2016) Professor of Biology Investigator, Howard Hughes Medical Institute Member, Whitehead Institute Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA USA
Courtesy Karikó/University of Pennsylvania Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman
2012pharmaceutical
Amandeep Kaur
Aashir Awan, Phd
Abhisar Anand
Adina Hazan
Alan F. Kaul, PharmD., MS, MBA, FCCP
alexcrystal6
anamikasarkar
apreconasia
aviralvatsa
David Orchard-Webb, PhD
danutdaagmailcom
Demet Sag, Ph.D., CRA, GCP
Dror Nir
dsmolyar
Ethan Coomber
evelinacohn
Gail S Thornton
Irina Robu
jayzmit48
jdpmd
jshertok
kellyperlman
Ed Kislauskis
larryhbern
Madison Davis
marzankhan
megbaker58
ofermar2020
Dr. Pati
pkandala
ritusaxena
Rick Mandahl
sjwilliamspa
Srinivas Sriram
stuartlpbi
Dr. Sudipta Saha
tildabarliya
vaishnavee24
zraviv06
zs22
Leave a Reply