Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman ’81, MA ’81 have received the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award. Weissman is a professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Karikó is a senior vice president at BioNTech RNA Pharmaceuticals. The Lasker award is in recognition of their research into messenger RNA and the resulting therapeutic technology. It was their work that was so crucial in the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccines. It should be noted that many winners of the Lasker award go on to receive the Nobel Prize.
Weissman and Kariko also received the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research award earlier this year.
The Washington Post profiled Weissman and his work in a recent article, “A scientific hunch. Then silence. Until the world needed a lifesaving vaccine.”
View Lasker acceptance remarks from Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman.
Science at Brandeis 