09-24-2021, 09:53 PM
and the Nobel Prize is probably on its way sometime in the future.
Thanks for saving the lives of hundred of millions
Penn RNA pioneers snag another big prize for research that enabled COVID-19 vaccines
Two University of Pennsylvania scientists have scored another big award for their research on messenger RNA (mRNA), the basis for two COVID-19 vaccines that are credited with saving many thousands of lives.
Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman are sharing one of 2021's three Lasker Awards, prize administrators announced Friday. The $250,000 honor comes two weeks after the pair shared a $3 million Breakthrough Prize, and 16 years after their first study that suggested mRNA could be a valuable tool in medicine.
Hundreds of scientists have helped to unlock the promise of this genetic molecule. But when Kariko took on the challenge in the 1990s, RNA research was widely seen as a dead end. The molecules degraded quickly and, when administered to lab animals, could cause harmful inflammation.
In 2005, she and Weissman reported that by performing a slight chemical modification to the RNA, they made the inflammation all but disappear. That success, followed by others, set the stage for the first two COVID vaccines authorized in the U.S.: the one made by Moderna and the joint effort from Pfizer and BioNTech, where Kariko now works.
J. Larry Jameson, dean of Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, said the award was an acknowledgment that the duo’s work applies to many other diseases besides COVID, such as cancer and sickle-cell anemia.
“From the challenges and losses sown by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said, “their breakthrough discoveries have emerged and allow us to see a brighter future for so many fields of medicine.”
Weissman, 62, and Kariko, 66, who still holds an adjunct position at Penn, have won more than a dozen awards between them since the dramatic early results were announced for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, less than a year ago.
“I never sought any of this,” Kariko told the Inquirer earlier in September.
Some in academia predict the two are in line for the most prestigious prize of all, a Nobel. That honor typically is awarded years after the impact of research is realized, but the past year has been anything but typical.
and if that's not enough, Kariko is the Mother of 2 time Olympic gold medalist rower Susan Francia!!!!
Thanks for saving the lives of hundred of millions
Penn RNA pioneers snag another big prize for research that enabled COVID-19 vaccines
Two University of Pennsylvania scientists have scored another big award for their research on messenger RNA (mRNA), the basis for two COVID-19 vaccines that are credited with saving many thousands of lives.
Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman are sharing one of 2021's three Lasker Awards, prize administrators announced Friday. The $250,000 honor comes two weeks after the pair shared a $3 million Breakthrough Prize, and 16 years after their first study that suggested mRNA could be a valuable tool in medicine.
Hundreds of scientists have helped to unlock the promise of this genetic molecule. But when Kariko took on the challenge in the 1990s, RNA research was widely seen as a dead end. The molecules degraded quickly and, when administered to lab animals, could cause harmful inflammation.
In 2005, she and Weissman reported that by performing a slight chemical modification to the RNA, they made the inflammation all but disappear. That success, followed by others, set the stage for the first two COVID vaccines authorized in the U.S.: the one made by Moderna and the joint effort from Pfizer and BioNTech, where Kariko now works.
J. Larry Jameson, dean of Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine, said the award was an acknowledgment that the duo’s work applies to many other diseases besides COVID, such as cancer and sickle-cell anemia.
“From the challenges and losses sown by the COVID-19 pandemic,” he said, “their breakthrough discoveries have emerged and allow us to see a brighter future for so many fields of medicine.”
Weissman, 62, and Kariko, 66, who still holds an adjunct position at Penn, have won more than a dozen awards between them since the dramatic early results were announced for the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, less than a year ago.
“I never sought any of this,” Kariko told the Inquirer earlier in September.
Some in academia predict the two are in line for the most prestigious prize of all, a Nobel. That honor typically is awarded years after the impact of research is realized, but the past year has been anything but typical.
and if that's not enough, Kariko is the Mother of 2 time Olympic gold medalist rower Susan Francia!!!!