Brandeis alumnus, Drew Weissman, ’81, MA ’81, P’15 along with Katalin Karikó have been awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences. Weissman and Karikó received the Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award for Distinguished Work in Basic Medical Research from Brandeis earlier this year.
While the Breakthrough Prize is considered the world’s largest science prize at $3 million, it is one of the many awards that Weissman and Kariko have been receiving as a result of their decades of research into mRNA therapies. It is this research that has led to the innovative COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna.
After earning his BA and MA degrees from Brandeis, Weissman went on to receive his PhD in Immunology from Boston University in 1987. He did a postdoctoral fellowship at the National Institutes of Health under Anthony Fauci. He is now a professor at University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine.
Additional information:
- Philadelphia Inquirer
- Breakthrough Prize announcement
- BrandeisNow – September 2020
- BrandeisNow – February 2021
The Biology department is cosponsoring an all-day symposium “Cellular and Molecular Immunology in Health and Disease” on Saturday, January 30. The symposium will be held in Gerstenzang 121 from 8:30 am to 6:00 pm. This symposium celebrates Ranjan Sen’s 60th birthday and is organized by Sen’s Brandeis alumni. This symposium is open to the public, although the breakfast and lunch are by invitation only and are not open to the public.
