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Refresh Takes: UB medical school hosts two leading doctors in the Covid-19 fight

Buffalo News - 5/27/2022

May 27—Dr. Drew Weissman labored two decades mostly in obscurity before the mRNA vaccine technology he helped develop began to address the global Covid-19 pandemic.

Dr. Peter J. Hotez — father of an adult daughter with autism and self-described "misinformation antagonist" — is a foremost vaccine advocate and Nobel Prize nominee.

The University of Buffalo brings Weissman to its Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences next weekend for a public talk.

Hotez the following week will give a free online presentation, "The Covid-19 Vaccines: Science vs. Anti-science," sponsored by the medical school.

Both events come after more than 6 million pandemic-related deaths have been reported worldwide, including more than 1 million in the U.S.

They touch a Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus where scientists and physicians help researchers around the world better understand the makeup of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid-19, track virus variants and subvariants, and help establish and improve a still-growing number of treatment strategies.

"Our researchers, our students and the general public will benefit greatly from this incredible opportunity to hear insights from two of the world's top vaccine scientists," said Allison Brashear, vice president for health sciences at UB and dean of the Jacobs School.

The school marks its 175th anniversary by hosting Weissman during its annual Spring Clinical Day from 4 to 6 p.m.June 4. His talk, "Collaboration Caught Fire," takes place in the M&T Lecture Hall in the medical school. The cost is $10 to see it in-person. It is free online. For information and to preregister, visit medicine.buffalo.edu/HarringtonLecture.

"So many times, those of us who've done biomedical research have faced the frustration of an unpredictable, zigzagging path of a theory," Brashear said. "The story of how Dr. Weissman and his partner turned scientific promise into a medical reality that changed the world is truly inspirational."

Weissman and Katalin Karikó, both research scientists at the University at Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine bent on developing vaccines for HIV and other diseases, met by chance at a copy machine two decades ago. They started hashing out various ways to stir an immune response in the body that created antibodies against a virus or parasite without causing damaging side effects.

Karikó convinced Weissman to try a modified version of messenger RNA. It took years for them to conclude that lipid nanoparticles were the safest delivery vehicle. They were working on vaccines and therapies to address influenza, autoimmune diseases and cancer when the pandemic turned their attention to Covid-19.

Their work laid the scientific foundation for the largest global vaccination campaign in history and protects the vast majority of those vaccinated with the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines from severe disease.

Last summer, both were awarded a $3 million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for their work.

Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Texas, is author of "Vaccines Did Not Cause Rachel's Autism: My Journey as a Vaccine Scientist, Pediatrician and Autism Dad."

He has been a leading voice in news and social media in promoting science and prevention during the pandemic, tearing apart anti-vaccination conspiracies.

Hotez and colleague Maria Elena Bottazzi were nominated this year for the Nobel Peace Prize for work to develop and distribute a less-expensive Covid-19 vaccine with without patent limitation, in hopes it can be used in nations that lack access to affordable, reliable supplies of the existing brands.

He co-leads teams focused on developing new vaccines drug companies don't see as financially viable, as well as for conditions and diseases that mostly sicken the poor.

His free virtual talk starts at noon June 9. Email dasceusa@buffalo.edu for the online link to watch.

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