Drew Weissman

Drew Weissman
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Name	Drew Weissman
Caption	Weissman in 2022
Birth date	7 September 1959
Birth place	Lexington, Massachusetts
Nationality	American
Fields	Immunology, RNA biology
Workplaces	University of Pennsylvania
Alma mater	Brandeis University (BA, MS), Boston University (MD, PhD)
Known for	Nucleoside-modified mRNA vaccine technology
Awards	Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award (2021), Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences (2021), Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2023)

Drew Weissman is an American physician-scientist whose pioneering research in nucleoside-modified messenger RNA (mRNA) laid the foundational technology for highly effective COVID-19 vaccines. A professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine, his collaborative work with colleague Katalin Karikó solved a major immunological barrier that had hindered the therapeutic use of mRNA. For this transformative achievement, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023 alongside Karikó.

Early life and education

Born in Lexington, Massachusetts, Weissman developed an early interest in science. He completed his undergraduate and graduate studies at Brandeis University, earning a Bachelor of Arts in biochemistry and a Master of Science in enzymology. He then pursued a combined Doctor of Medicine and Doctor of Philosophy program at Boston University and its affiliated Boston University School of Medicine. His doctoral research focused on the immune response to HIV infection. Following his medical degree, he completed a residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.

Research and career

Weissman conducted pivotal postdoctoral research in the laboratory of Anthony Fauci at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). There, he studied dendritic cell biology and their role in shaping adaptive immunity. In 1997, he joined the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, where he established his own laboratory. His research program initially focused on HIV vaccine development and innate immune recognition. A fortuitous meeting with Katalin Karikó, a fellow researcher at the university, led to a decades-long collaboration. Together, they investigated the inflammatory reactions triggered by synthetic mRNA, a significant obstacle to its clinical application.

COVID-19 vaccine development

The critical breakthrough by Weissman and Karikó was the discovery that modifying the nucleosides in mRNA—specifically substituting pseudouridine for uridine—could dramatically reduce the unwanted inflammatory response while enhancing protein production. This nucleoside-modified mRNA platform, for which they received key patents, became the core technology licensed to BioNTech and Moderna. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, these companies rapidly deployed the technology to develop the BNT162b2 (Pfizer–BioNTech) and mRNA-1273 (Moderna) vaccines. These vaccines demonstrated exceptional efficacy and safety in global clinical trials, playing a decisive role in the international public health response and saving millions of lives.

Awards and honors

Weissman's work has been recognized with numerous prestigious awards. In 2021, he and Karikó received the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, often considered a precursor to the Nobel. That same year, they were awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. Other notable honors include the Albany Medical Center Prize, the Japan Prize, and the Robert Koch Prize. The pinnacle of recognition came in 2023 when the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute awarded Weissman and Karikó the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries enabling effective mRNA vaccines.

Personal life

Weissman is married and has two children. He maintains his research laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania, where he continues to investigate new applications of mRNA technology, including potential vaccines for other infectious diseases like influenza and HIV, as well as therapeutic approaches for genetic disorders and cancer.

Category:American immunologists Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine Category:University of Pennsylvania faculty Category:1959 births Category:Living people