The National Institute for Infectious Diseases ‘L. Spallanzani’ Irccs in Rome hosted the lecture by Professor Drew Weissman, winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize for Medicine for the discoveries that have made the development of effective vaccines against Covid possible using mRna technology. The day was organized and promoted by Delia Goletti, director of the Translational Research UOC of INMI Spallanzani and former colleague of Weissman between 1992 and 1996 in the United States under the guidance of Professor Anthony Fauci. She moderated the meeting between Professor Weissman and the Spallanzani researchers, an important moment of discussion in which many researchers were able to ask their questions to the winner of the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
As explained by Goletti, “during this meeting we talked about mRna vaccines and the future potential of this technology compared to current vaccination platforms. In particular, Weissman highlighted the speed of development, reduced costs and the possibility of production on a global scale, accessible even to middle-income nations, underlining how these platforms can guarantee equitable access to care at an international level. We also discussed strategies for designing vaccines for diseases for which protective immunity is not yet known, as in the case of tuberculosis. Another crucial aspect that emerged during the meeting – he added – is the need for effective communication to counteract skepticism towards new biomedical technologies. Clear and transparent information is essential for the acceptance of new therapeutic and vaccination treatments. Furthermore, Prof. Weissman emphasized the essential role of research and the value of collaboration, a fundamental tool for achieving objectives that would otherwise be unattainable individually: just think of the development of the anti-Covid-19 vaccine born from the collaboration between Professor Weissman himself and Dr. Katalin Kariko and which has allowed global control of the pandemic and severe forms of tuberculosis.”
Weissman, ‘I think we will have some extraordinary innovations in the future’
On the sidelines of the meeting, speaking to Spallanzani, Weissman declared: “mRna-based technology is a platform that lends itself to many uses and which, therefore, will change medicine radically: we are studying new therapies, for example, for avoid the process of fibrosis in hearts that have suffered a heart attack. There are hundreds of clinical trials for a variety of infectious diseases such as malaria, influenza, tuberculosis and the results are promising. We can expand this technology by exploring new fields such as vaccines for autoimmune diseases, for food allergies or for cancer – for example melanoma or pancreatic cancer – and other conditions. I think that in the future we will have some extraordinary innovations but it is difficult to say how long it will take: we are increasingly discovering the working mechanisms of this technology based on mRNA and therefore how this platform can contribute to defeating many different diseases, beyond those infectious. The future is very exciting”.
For Cristina Matranga, Extraordinary Commissioner of Spallanzani, “this visit makes us happy and proud. We can only be grateful to Dr. Weissman because his discoveries on RNA have changed the recent fate of global health, allowing us to tame the pandemic and at the same time paving the way for vaccines and therapies which, thanks to this technology, will guarantee sustainability and equity.”
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