Drew Weisman’s decades of research helped pave the way for mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, but scientists are not resting on their laurels.
The University of Pennsylvania immunologist, who shared the $3 million 2022 Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences with his longtime collaborator Caitlin Carico on Thursday, is now leading efforts to design a new vaccine against all coronaviruses.
The Silicon Valley-backed prize honors major discoveries in science with the highest cash amount.
“There have been three (coronavirus) pandemics or pandemics in the last 20 years,” Weisman told AFP in an interview, referring to the original SARS virus, MERS and Covid-19.
“You have to assume that there’s going to be a lot more, and our idea was that we can wait for the next coronavirus pandemic or pandemic, and then spend a year and a half making a vaccine. Or we Can make one now and have it either ready to go, or use it now.”
The 62-year-old and his team began work on the project last spring and have published two papers so far, with promising results.
One of the vaccines was shown to prevent SARS and some other animal coronaviruses that have the ability to cross into humans.
By now, many people are familiar with the basic principles of mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) vaccines: They give our cells genetic instructions to manufacture the spike protein of the coronavirus, so that our bodies produce antibodies when they encounter the actual virus. Can you
The new focus is to try to train our immune system to detect parts of the virus that don’t mutate as rapidly as they spike. These are called “protected areas”.
As a practicing physician for most of my life, “since starting college and medical school my dream was to do something that would help people,” Weisman said, adding that he was “incredibly happy.” ” He laid the groundwork for saving lives by looking for vaccines .
But while he foresaw the issue of global vaccine disparity – and for this reason is working on a project with the Thai government to develop his own COVID-19 vaccine – he noted the level of vaccine hesitancy seen in wealthy countries. admitted to be surprised. .
“The conservative anti-science, anti-government people completely shocked us. I didn’t expect that group to come out against vaccines,” he said.
new applications
While mRNA technology is getting a lot of attention, Weisman recalls a time when the field was a scientific backwater.
Of his work with Kariko, he said, “We started working together in 1998, and that was without a lot of funding and in the way of publications.”
In 2005, he discovered a way to replace synthetic RNA to stop it causing a massive inflammatory response in animal experiments.
“Just before our paper was published I said ‘our phones are going to go off the hook,'” he recalls.
“We sat there staring at our phones for five years, and they never called!”
With the second major breakthrough in 2015, they discovered a new way to safely and effectively deliver the particles to their target cells using a fatty coating called “lipid nanoparticles.”
Both developments are part of Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 Vaccines today.
Beyond vaccines, mRNA technology is also being pioneered for the potential to revolutionize medicine.
Weisman’s team is working on using RNA to develop a single-injection gene therapy to address the defect that causes sickle cell anemia, a genetic blood disease with which 200,000 babies are born each year in Africa. .
Significant technical challenges remain in ensuring that the treatment is able to edit genes correctly and is safe, but the researchers are hopeful.
Bone marrow transplant, an expensive treatment with serious risks, is currently the only treatment.
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