Drew Weismann, M.D., Ph.D.
2023 Nobel Prize Physiology or Medicine for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19.
2022 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences
Drew Weissman, M.D., Ph.D., is a physician-scientist whose ground-breaking work with RNA Biology led to a Nobel Prize in Medicine. His research laid the foundation for the mRNA vaccines for COVID-19 developed by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna. Dr. Weissman is a Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania.
His laboratory’s work focuses on the study of RNA and innate immune system biology. One of Dr. Weissman’s first projects began using an mRNA encoding antigen as a delivery system to load dendritic cells, which promote broad immune responses as part of a vaccine. This project has expanded to include basic studies of RNA immunogenicity and translation and the development of applications for gene therapy.
Another of Dr. Weissman’s projects develops new HIV envelope immunogens that can induce broad responses and cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies. A third project continues his previous studies that identified a protein found on dendritic cells, macrophages, and epithelial cells that bind HIV envelopes with high affinity. The main focus of this project is testing whether this and related molecules function in vivo to promote HIV genital tract infection with optimism to create a vaccine for HIV.
