Weissman's work underpins Pfizer and Moderna vaccines

Person: Drew Weissman
Lived: b. 1959
Field: Immunology
From: American

The story

When the genetic sequence of the new coronavirus became available in January 2020, the technology Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó had spent years developing was ready. Their discovery that modified bases stop lab-made mRNA from triggering inflammation and boost protein production, together with methods for delivering mRNA in lipid nanoparticles, gave vaccine makers a platform that could be adapted quickly to a new virus.

Two base-modified mRNA vaccines encoding the coronavirus's spike protein were developed at record speed, by Pfizer with BioNTech and by Moderna. Their modified-RNA technology became the key foundation of both. Weissman and Karikó's patents on nucleoside-modified RNA had been licensed to Cellscript, a company founded by Gary Dahl, which in turn licensed the technology to Moderna and BioNTech.

According to the Nobel committee, the two vaccines showed protective effects of around 95 percent and were approved as early as December 2020. The Lasker Foundation reports that after two doses both were 94 to 95 percent effective against symptomatic infection with the original virus, and that they also gave substantial protection against later variants such as Delta. The Nobel committee noted that more than 13 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses of various kinds have been given worldwide, and that the vaccines saved millions of lives, prevented severe disease in many more and allowed societies to reopen.

The work also touched people personally. The Washington Post reported that Weissman receives fan mail from around the world thanking him for his work. One letter said, “You've made hugs and closeness possible again.” In 2024 Time included him and Karikó on its list of the most influential people in health.

The speed of the response depended on decades of slow, often unfunded basic research. The same platform is now being explored for vaccines against influenza, HIV and future coronaviruses, so the foundation laid by Weissman and Karikó may protect people in pandemics still to come.