Honoring mRNA pioneers Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman

20-Minute Health Talk · Sep 7, 2022 · 20m

While the Covid vaccines were developed and deployed in less than a year, the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology that powered them took more than five decades to develop. On this episode, we speak with two researchers who played a key role in advancing the science: Katalin Kariko, PhD, adjunct professor of Neurosurgery at the University of Pennsylvania and a senior vice president at BioNTech; and Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, the Roberts Family Professor of Vaccine Research in Penn's Perelman School of Medicine. Despite setbacks and even ridicule from peers, they worked tirelessly to find a way to…