The 2022 Tang Prize winners for sustainable development and biopharmaceutical science were announced June 18 and 19, respectively, by Taipei City-based Tang Prize Foundation.
Jeffrey Sachs was honored for “leading transdisciplinary sustainability science and creating the multilateral movement for its applications from village to nation and to the world,” while Katalin Kariko, Drew Weissman and Pieter Cullis were jointly recognized for their “discovery of key vaccinology concepts and approaches that lead to the successful development of mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccines,” according to the foundation.
With bachelor’s, master’s and doctorate degrees in economics from Harvard University, Sachs served as special advisor to three U.N. secretaries-general before becoming director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University as well as president of the U.N. Sustainable Development Solutions Network, TPF said.
Sachs has made great contributions to the establishment and promotion of the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, the foundation said, adding that he is also a recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Knight of the National Order of the Legion of Honor by France and Blue Planet Prize by Japan.
Kariko, who was educated in Hungary and relocated to the U.S. in 1985, has devoted herself to the development of in vitro transcription of mRNA for protein therapies while Weissman, the Roberts Family Professor in Vaccine Research at the University of Pennsylvania, opened a laboratory to develop an HIV vaccine in 1997. Working together, they created a modified version of mRNA that would not cause an inflammatory response when injected into the body, and the technology was used to create the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines.
Cullis, a professor at the University of British Columbia, is a pioneer developer of lipid nanoparticles, which are used to effectively deliver mRNA to human cells.
Established by Taiwan entrepreneur Samuel Yin in 2012 and first conferred two years later, the Tang Prize allocates recipients in the categories of sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, Sinology and rule of law NT$50 million (US$1.68 million). (YCH-E)
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