Drew Weissman
Facts
© Nobel Prize Outreach. Photo: Clément Morin
Drew Weissman
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2023
Born: 7 September 1959, Lexington, MA, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: Penn Institute for RNA Innovations, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA
Prize motivation: “for their discoveries concerning nucleoside base modifications that enabled the development of effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19”
Prize share: 1/2
Work
A vaccine prevents diseases by stimulating the body's immune system to develop a defense against the infectious agent. One type of vaccine uses mRNA, which transfers genetic information from DNA to stimulate protein production. In 2005, Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó discovered that certain modifications of the building blocks of RNA prevented unwanted inflammatory reactions and increased the production of desired proteins. The discovery laid the foundation for effective mRNA vaccines against COVID-19 during the pandemic that began in early 2020.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
