Drew Weissman, immunologist and ‘father’ of the vaccine: “I receive death threats every week”

Drew Weissman (USA, 1959) opted for the technology of the now famous messenger RNA, the same one that made it possible to have vaccines for a new disease in record time, when no one else did. This immunologist, together with the biochemist Katalin Karikó, founded their own company to investigate more about the system that allows RNA to make a copy of DNA information and transport it to the cell’s machinery that is responsible for manufacturing proteins. They discovered how to use this mechanism in our favor, turning our own cells into our personal ‘apothecary’, creating the desired proteins to immunize us against different diseases. Both, along with Robert Langer, who discovered how to ‘package’ RNA and introduce it into… See More