H eadlines
Professor Continued from Page 1
recipients of the Benjamin
Franklin Medal in Life Science
for their contributions to
research on RNA that shaped
the creation of the Moderna and
Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19
vaccines. The award will be
presented in May.

In September, the duo won
the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical
Medical Research Award for
their research on the COVID
vaccine and the Breakthrough
Prize for prior research on
the use of RNA treatments for
cancer and sickle cell anemia.

Since the COVID vaccine
has been in use, Weissman
and Karikó have won nearly a
dozen awards for their RNA
research, which allowed for
RNA to become usable and
more potent in the use of
vaccines and treatments.

RNA vaccines are easier to
make than other vaccine types
because the isolation and repli-
cation of the specific virus is
not necessary in the creation.

However, making RNA a
viable tool was not possible
before Weissman and Karikó’s
research. “When we gave RNA as
an injection into a mouse, the
mice got sick,” Weissman said.

12 DECEMBER 16, 2021
Drew Weissman (left) in the lab with colleague and Adjunct Professor of
Neurosurgery Katalin Karikó
Drew Weissman and Katalin Karikó were awarded the Franklin Institute’s
Benjamin Franklin Medal in Life Science on Nov. 30.

“It was because the RNA was
inflamed. What we figured out
is that our body uses RNA to
distinguish pathogens from
cells. So it detects viruses,
bacteria, other parasites, other
pathogens, mainly, but not
exclusively, on their RNA.”
By changing one of the
four bases, or letters, in RNA,
the researchers were able to
make RNA non-inflamma-
tory, a discovery they made
in 2005. Once Weissman and
Karikó learned of the corona-
virus’ particular protein
sequence in 2020, they, along
with Moderna and Pfizer, were
able to quickly adapt an RNA
vaccine to combat the virus.

They had been concerned
about COVID since hearing
her training in biochemistry,
receiving both her bachelor’s
and doctorate from József Attila
University in Hungary.

“Katie and I are very
different people,” Weissman
said. “Katie is very emotional
and reactive; I’m very quiet,
even-keeled, non-emotional.”
But despite their differ-
ences, the two have maintained
a two-and-a-half-decade
partnership. “The critical thing is we’re
both open-minded and inquis-
itive; we don’t take things for
granted,” Weissman said.

Their research together has
had a profound change on
the world, senior Weissman
laboratory member and
Adjunct Assistant Professor of
Medicine Dr. Elena Atochina-
Vasserman said.

When the duo developed
the RNA technology, Atochina-
Wasserman said, it was like
showing someone with a rotary
phone the new iPhone — it
was a device that didn’t just
improve how calls were made;
it fundamentally changed how
someone moved through the
world. “Twenty years from now,
every single young person will
know that Drew Weissman,
‘revolutionary,’ changed their
life,” Atochina-Vasserman said.

Weissman always had an
interest in the sciences. He
originally wanted to pursue
engineering, which he said is
similar to the “basic sciences.”
“It’s creation
and about it in October 2019.

“We were already talking,
and we were already concerned
because, to us, it appeared
that it was spreading rapidly,”
Weissman said. “It appears to
be a brand-new infection, so
we were concerned that it could
turn into something worse.”
But even before the onset of
the pandemic, the pair were in
the middle of five clinical trials
on various RNA vaccine treat-
ments. Their lab wasn’t always
as fruitful as it is today.

“Katie [Karikó] and I were
studying RNA when most
other people weren’t interested,”
Weissman said. “Katie and I
went on for 20 plus years with
no funding. People wouldn’t
publish our papers; people
weren’t interested in RNA, and
we just kept going because the
data and the hope was there.”
Weissman and Karikó
met competing for use of the
photocopier at the University
of Pennsylvania in 1997.

Weissman came to Penn
from the National Institute
of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases led by then-Di-
rector Dr. Anthony Fauci. He
became a doctor of medicine
and received his doctorate in
immunology and microbiology
from the University of Boston
in 1987, having earned his
bachelor’s and master’s degrees
from Brandeis University in
1981, where he met his wife
Mary Ellen Weissman.

Karikó is not an immunol-
ogist by trade; rather, she has
JEWISH EXPONENT
Courtesy of Penn Medicine
understanding,” he said.

Weissman’s empirical sensi-
bilities were there from day
one, he said. He was raised
by a Jewish father and an
Italian non-Jewish mother
who never converted. He grew
up celebrating all the Jewish
holidays — and still does with
Mary Ellen Weissman, who
was raised observant, and
his children who attended
Temple Beth Hillel/Beth El
in Wynnewood with Taffet’s
daughter — but his family was
not religious, he said.

“I’m more of a Daoist,
in that point of view that I
think that Earth, nature is the
supreme — the main compo-
nent of life. And that’s what
needs to be celebrated.”
Since the rollout of the
vaccine, Weissman has received
hundreds of letters applauding
his success. People have asked
for his autograph.

Though his and Karikó’s
impact has been felt all over
the world, Weissman has also
changed the lives of those close
to him.

Taffet remembered receiving
her first dose of the COVID
vaccine earlier this year. When
she got her shot, she thought of
Weissman. “The entire time, the entire
time,” Taffet said. “The first
emotion that I felt was intense
pride ... and then incredible
gratitude.” l
srogelberg@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0741
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H eadlines
Museum Continued from Page 1
When residents
and visitors tour the Independence
National Historical Park site,
they will see its usual displays
about the revolution. But at
the end of the tour, they also
will see a new exhibit about
Colonial-era Jews.

“We want everyone in
America to come here and see
a piece of themselves in the
Revolution,” Turdo said. “It
really does belong to everyone.”
Brothers Barnard and
Michael Gratz, whose descen-
dants went on to found Gratz
College in Philadelphia, are
at the center of the exhibit.

The Philadelphia siblings were
merchants with dealings all
over the Atlantic world in
everything from deer skins to
candles, according to Turdo.

They also brought the
Jewish community in the
region closer together, a
museum news release said.

The brothers built Mikveh
Israel, which still stands, and
connected with Joseph Simon
in Lancaster, who possessed
one of the first Torah sets in
North America. Michael Gratz
went on to marry Simon’s
daughter, Miriam.

In the 1760s, the brothers
“publicly protested British
taxation” and signed the
Non-Importation Agreement
that prevented commerce
with Britain, the release said.

During the Revolutionary War,
they used their businesses to
supply the Continental Army
with materials.

Later, they successfully
petitioned Pennsylvania to
drop the requirement that
General Assembly candidates
be Christian.

The exhibit shows artifacts
from these activities, including
portraits of the brothers,
Simon’s Torah ark and Michael
Gratz’s business notebook.

“Very active, very engaged
and, during the revolution,
very patriotic,” said Turdo of
the Colonial-era Jewish leaders.

JEWISHEXPONENT.COM Joseph Simon’s Torah ark
from the Colonial era, donated
to the Museum of the American
Revolution by Mikveh Israel
“It’s a very small number to be
that engaged.”
The museum regularly
assembles special exhibits like
this, Turdo said.

Past displays have paid
homage to the Davenport
family and to the forgotten
history of women voting in
New Jersey elections between
1776 and 1807 — before they
lost the right to vote.

“We can grow the under-
standing of, what does the
Revolution mean, and whose
revolution is it?” Turdo said.

The Jewish exhibit started
with a loan of Barnard
Gratz’s portrait from a private
collector. After that, museum
leaders worked to turn the
single item into a full-fledged
display. Between the museum’s
existing collection
and additional loans, it secured
more than 400 original items.

The Rosenbach,
a Philadelphia museum that
showcases rare
books, manuscripts and art, donated
the portrait of Michael Gratz
A Gratz pocket almanac Courtesy of the Museum of the American Revolution
the United States,” Gabbai said. case — contains a bit of wisdom
Gabbai even argued that that is also in the Talmud.

The Constitutions of the Several
“Many Jews who were here
Jewish leaders played an
Independent States of America
Courtesy of the Museum of important role in the discourse were talking to the adopters
the American Revolution
around the framing of the of the Constitution,” he said.

Constitution. He said that the “So no doubt Jewish ideas were
Fifth Amendment in partic- present.” l
ular — when it states that no
and the state constitutions person can act as a witness jsaffren@jewishexponent.com;
that Barnard Gratz reviewed against himself in a criminal 215-832-0740
as he lobbied Pennsylvania to
allow Jewish representation.

Mikveh Israel gave the Torah
ark from Joseph Simon.

“It’s important for the world
to know that even before the
American Revolution, there
was a Jewish presence,” Mikveh
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“And that the Jewish presence
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As Gabbai explained, there’s
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Mikveh Israel’s commu-
nity formed in Philadelphia
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36 years before the revolu-
tion, Gabbai said. The first
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synagogue building in the
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DECEMBER 16, 2021
13