Dr. Drew Weissman

Drew Weissman is an American physician-scientist best known for his contributions to RNA biology. His work helped enable the development of effective mRNA vaccines, the best known of which are those for COVID-19 produced by BioNTech/Pfizer and Moderna.

Received the Empowering Research and Discovery Award.

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Dr. Katalin Karikó

Katalin Karikó, PhD, is a biochemist and researcher, best known for her contributions to mRNA technology and the COVID-19 vaccines. Karikó and co-collaborator Drew Weissman, MD, PhD, invented the modified mRNA technology used in Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna’s vaccines to prevent COVID-19 infection.

Received the Empowering Research and Discovery Award.

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Pfizer, Dan A. Scott, MD Vice President, Clinical Research & Development, Vaccines

Received the Empowering Research and Discovery Award.

Moderna, Jacqueline Miller, MD Senior Vice President, Therapeutic Area Head, Infectious Diseases

Received the Empowering Research and Discovery Award

Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, Penny Heaton, MD Global Therapeutic Area Head, Vaccines

Received the Empowering Research and Discovery Award.

Susan Hockfield, PhD, President Emerita and Professor of Neuroscience, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

Dr. Hockfield is President Emerita, Professor of Neuroscience, and a member of the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. From 2004 to 2012, she served as the sixteenth President of MIT, the first life-scientist and the first woman in that role.

Received the D. Walter Cohen, DDS Service to Science Award.

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David Fajgenbaum, MD, MBA, MSc, Assistant Professor in the Division of Translational Medicine & Human Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania, the Co-Founder & Executive Director of the Castleman Disease Collaborative Network (CDCN)

National Bestselling author of Chasing My Cure: A Doctor’s Race to Turn Hope Into Action received the Excellence in Research and Patient Advocacy Award.

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Gift of Life Donor Program, the nation's leading organ procurement organization coordinates more organ and tissue donors than anywhere else in the United States. Gift of Life Donor Program has a 44-year long history of saving lives and NDRI’s longest OPO partner.

Recieved the Legacy Partnership Award.

Lonza, a global organization focused on enabling a healthier world by supporting healthcare customers on their path to commercialization, received the Outstanding Life Sciences Industry Leadership Award.