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Drew Weissman

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Doctor

The Resume

    (September 7, 1959- )
    Born in Lexington, Massachusetts
    Immunologist
    Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania
    Studied the use of messenger RNA (mRNA) for protein replacement therapy and in vaccines
    Co-recipient with Katalin Kariko of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (2023)

Why he might be annoying:

    He said of his and Kariko's difficulties in gaining funding and recognition, 'We had to fight the entire way.'
    Their paper explaining how to modify mRNA to prevent inflammatory side effects in patients (paving the way for using mRNA in vaccines) was rejected by 'Science' and 'Nature.'
    When he was told that he and Kariko had won the Nobel Prize, 'I thought some anti-vaxxer was playing a joke on us, or something like that.' (He later explained that he had expected to win the Nobel Prize, just not so soon: 'Usually the Nobel waits eight or nine years after a big finding before awarding.')

Why he might not be annoying:

    He had a fellowship at the National Institutes of Health under Anthony Fauci.
    He met Kariko at a photocopier, where they bonded over the lack of funding for mRNA research.
    His and Kariko's mRNA research served as the basis for the Covid-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna.
    He collaborated with researchers in Thailand to develop Covid vaccines that could be distributed in Third World countries that did not have immediate access to the Pfizer and Modern vaccines.
    His phone call telling his nonagenarian parents that he had won the Nobel Prize was filmed by the University of Pennsylvania and went viral.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 52 Votes: 19.23% Annoying