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
Reporter & Real Time Coverage on 2/8/2021
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
Brandeis University and the Rosenstiel Foundation are pleased to award the 50th annual Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research to Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman ’81, MA ’81, P’15, for their groundbreaking work in the modification of nucleic acids to develop RNA therapeutics and vaccines.
Karikó, senior vice president at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals, and Weissman, a professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, pioneered much of the science underlying two of the COVID-19 vaccines now being given to tens of millions of people across the globe.
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:
https://ensemble.brandeis.edu/Watch/Aj7x3G8L
SOURCE
From: Ron Liebowitz <president@brandeis.edu>
Date: Thursday, February 11, 2021 at 5:48 PM
The Rosenstiel Award
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.
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Derrick Rossi, co-founder of Moderna, will present congratulatory remarks.
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
47th (2017)
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
46th (2016)
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
45th (2015)
in recognition of his pioneering discoveries of molecular pathways and biological functions of protein degradation by autophagy
Yoshinori Ohsumi
(2016 Nobel Prize)
Professor
Frontier Research Center
Tokyo Institute of Technology
Tokyo, Japan
SOURCE
https://www.brandeis.edu/now/2021/january/rosenstiel-covid-vaccine.html
https://www.brandeis.edu/rosenstiel/rosenstiel-award/past.html
From: Brandeis Special Events <specialevents@brandeis.edu>
Reply-To: <specialevents@brandeis.edu>
Date: Friday, January 22, 2021 at 2:18 PM
To: “Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN” <AvivaLev-Ari@alum.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Brandeis University: 50th Annual Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award Ceremony
LIVE
Prof. James Haber
- synthetic modified mRNA to produce the Spike protein
- bypassing messenger RNA to curtail the efficacy of the infective power of the messenger
Dr. Derrick Rossi
- 2010 Founded Moderna
- He is the CEO of Convelo Therapeutics.
- DNA instructions of life are initiated
- instructions for protein made in cytoplasm
- intermediary mRNA (single structured) from DNA (double structured) transmitted to RNA
- Why mRNA are not used in most labs? vs DNA and proteins
- Gene therapy is DNA therapy
- mRNA – is neglected = cellular reprogramming – therapeutic potential 2012 Nobel Prize by Japanese
- mRNA immediately degrades
- mRNA is intrinsically immunogenic
- mRNA reside in nucleosides, paper in 2005, mRNA therapeutics potential discovery
- UPenn licensed the discovery to a company
- Most future vaccines will be mRNA
- DNA and Recombinant DNA for therapeutics
- Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman – Lead contributors
Katalin Karikó, 1989 joined UPenn – Development of mRNA for Therapy
Sr. VP BioNtech Therapeutics
- mRNA get the message to Ribosome translate to protein
- plasmid DNA – SP6 PNA polymerase 1984 – transcription/capping
- Human interferon IFN CDS
- injecting mRNA to mice 1990 – cap analog va enzymatic cap
- mRNA work in vivo – 1990 – Gene Therapy and gene delivery
- mRNA for therapeutic – synthesis of mRNA and evaluating in mammalian cells
- DNA isolate cDNA synthesis amplifying DNA then DNA Seq
- 1989 Taq DNA polymerase
- Transfection – Lipofectin – 1987
- IVT – evaluating gag mRNA in human dendritic cells – immune response detected
- immunogenecity – mRNA
- Dendritic – RNA transfection monocyte-derived human DCs ..inflammation response
- tRNA – is enriched
- modifying enzymes were unknown
- incorporation of modified nucleotides into RNA by in vitro transcription
- measuring inflammatory response
- modified URIDINE-containing mRNA in Non-immunogenic
- it Dimerize TLR7 & TLR*
- Superior translation of lipofectin-derived pseudouridine-modified mRNA
- Pseudouridine-containing mEPO mRNA delivery –
- modified mRNA – HCT increases due to EPO –
- Optimizing IVT mRNA
- highly translatable mRNA – All
- mRNA – new class of medicine – highly translatable
- mRNA-loaded nanoparticle – human heart
- cytokine response inflammatory
- mRNA monoclonal antibodies
Dr. Faucci
- mRNA based vaccine BioNtech in Germany and Moderna in Cambridge, MA
- Basic research led to development of the Vaccine for the Pandemic
Dr. Drew Weissman
- Nucleoside-modified mRNA SAR-COV-2
- Viral Vectored RNA platform
- Inactivated or live virus
- viral vector
- DNA
- mRNA
- protein subunits
- CORONAVIRUS: Respiratory, GI in human and animals
- 2002 – SARS Bat -> civets ->human
- Human to Human was not effective but 10% mortality
- MERS-COv: Camel ->> Human
- PAN coronavirus vaccine;
- Discovery of mRNA: DNA transcription RNA translation protein
- Nucleoside-modified
- Benefits of RNA-based vaccines: can’t change DNA RNA is NON replication vector- short-lived controllable
- Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna vaccine works:
- Inject vaccine – induce potent immune response – Uptake spike protein produced immune response trigered antibody T and B cell mount response
- Vaccine efficacy 27 days after 2nd dose 94.8%
- 5 in a million – anafilactic response
- NO CHANGE to DNA by the mRNA vaccine