Dr. Katalin Karikó, Senior Vice President RNA Protein Replacement Therapies, BioNTech

Katalin Karikó works at BioNTech from 2013. Prior to that, she worked at the University of Pennsylvania for 24 years. She received her PhD in biochemistry from University of Szeged, Hungary, in 1982. Her thesis work involved synthesis and antiviral evaluation of short 2’-5’-linked oligonucleotides. For decades, her research has been focusing on RNA-mediated mechanisms with the ultimate goal of developing in vitro-transcribed mRNA for protein therapy. She investigated RNA-mediated immune activation and co-discovered that nucleoside modifications suppress immunogenicity of RNA. This groundbreaking work unlocked the opportunity for the therapeutic use of mRNA. Her patent, co-invented on nucleoside-modified uridines of mRNA, was the foundation for the FDA-approved COVID-19 mRNA vaccines developed by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna/NIH.

Dr. Ugur Sahin, Co-Founder and CEO, BioNTech

Dr. Özlem Türeci, Co-Founder and Chief Medical Officer, BioNTech

Dr. Drew Weissman, Professor of Medicine, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

Dr. Weissman’s laboratory focuses on the study of RNA and innate immune system biology and the application of these findings to vaccine research and gene therapy. There are three main projects in his laboratory. The first project began through the use of mRNA encoding antigen as a delivery system to load dendritic cells to promote broad immune responses as part of a vaccine. This project has expanded to include basic studies of RNA immunogenicity and translation and the development of applications for gene therapy. The second project develops new HIV envelope immunogens that can induce broad responses and cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies. The third project continues previous studies that identified a protein found on DC, macrophages, and epithelial cells that binds HIV envelope with high affinity. The main focus of this project is testing whether this and related molecules function in vivo to promote HIV genital tract infection.

Dr. Lisa Cook, Professor of Economics and International Relations, Michigan State University

Dr. Lisa Cook was the first Marshall Scholar from Spelman College and received a second B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics from Oxford University. She earned a Ph.D. in economics from the University of California, Berkeley with fields in macroeconomics and international economics. Among her current research interests are economic growth and development, innovation, financial institutions and markets, and economic history. Dr. Cook is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and is the author of a number of published articles, book chapters, and working papers. She is on the Board of Editors of the Journal of Economic Literature, and her research has appeared in such journals as the American Economic Review and the Journal of Economic Growth.

Ivan Fong, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal and Policy Office and Secretary, 3M Company