A scientific hunch. Then silence. Until the world needed a lifesaving vaccine.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Last edited Mon Oct 4, 2021, 04:48 PM - Edit history (2)

{edited to add the cutline for the second photograph}

Vaccine vanguard

A scientific hunch. Then silence. Until the world needed a lifesaving vaccine.

Drew Weissman helped make ‘hugs and closeness possible again.’ It didn’t happen overnight.



Drew Weissman describes the structure of pseudouridine, the molecule that made messenger RNA work, by pointing to a sculpture of the molecule welded by his daughter Rachel Weissman for his office at the University of Pennsylvania. (Rachel Wisniewski for The Washington Post)

By Carolyn Y. Johnson
October 1, 2021 at 7:00 a.m. EDT

PHILADELPHIA — For months, the postcards and letters have flowed in from across the world, slipped under the door of Drew Weissman’s austere fourth-floor office at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

Brisbane, Australia. Lynnwood, Wash. New York City. In looping cursive, strangers write to thank this reticent 62-year-old scientist whose years of painstaking work with a scientific partner, Katalin Kariko, formed the backbone of coronavirus vaccines.

“You’ve made hugs and closeness possible again.”

“Thank you for your research efforts and persistence.”

Weissman is bewildered by the outpouring — and even more incredulous at requests for autographs and photos. The world’s appreciation is jarring to this researcher who doesn’t talk much and whose face rarely flickers with emotion. He is just as straight-faced in accepting some of the biggest awards in science and medicine, including the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award that often precedes a Nobel Prize, as he is unflustered and matter-of-fact in recounting the long, frustrating run-up to this moment.

{snip}



Weissman, center, with his lab team in August at the University of Pennsylvania. From left, Dr. Qin Li, Houping Ni, Dr. Xiomara Mercado-López and Elena Atochina-Vasserman. (Rachel Wisniewski for The Washington Post)

{snip}

By Carolyn Y. Johnson
Carolyn Johnson is a science reporter. She previously covered the business of health and the affordability of health care to consumers. Twitter https://twitter.com/carolynyjohnson

[Taraman]

1. Great series of articles on the vaccine developers

Made for movie stuff, maybe Ken Burns style.

Kudos to Carolyn Johnson and the Washington Post.

[NNadir]

2. Kariko was the main driver for pseudouridine. It sounds like another Rosalind Franklin type of...

...injustice is being plotted, a man is taking credit for a woman scientist's insight and work.

Kariko went through hell to push for pseudouridine. Let's not make it worse.

If anyone but Kariko gets the Nobel for this work, it will be yet another crime against women scientists.

[3Hotdogs]

3. + 1