“mRNA vaccines saved millions of lives during the pandemic”

Immunologist Drew Weissman, recipient of the 14th Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine, explains in this interview how, together with Katalin Karikó, he discovered how to make messenger RNA non-inflammatory while also increasing protein production—the foundation of mRNA vaccines. He highlights that this technology, widely used during the pandemic, holds enormous potential for therapies such as the in vivo generation of CAR-T cells or the treatment of sickle cell anemia, and he underscores the importance of training new generations of researchers.

The BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Award in Biology and Biomedicine has gone in this fourteenth edition to Katalin Karikó, Robert Langer and Drew Weissman “for their contributions to messenger RNA (mRNA) therapeutics and delivery technology that enable our own cells to produce proteins for disease protection and treatment,” remarked the committee in its citation.