Learning lessons from lipids to make COVID-19 vaccines

A game-changing intervention in the COVID-19 pandemic has been the rapid implementation of highly effective vaccines against SARS-CoV-2. The 2022 Canada Gairdner International Award recognizes Pieter Cullis, Katalin Karikó, and Drew Weissman “for their pioneering work developing nucleoside-modified mRNA and lipid nanoparticle (LNP) drug delivery: the foundational technologies for the highly effective COVID-19 mRNA vaccines.” Cell editor Cheri Sirois caught up with Pieter to discuss how a long interest in basic and applied questions in lipid biology led to this fortuitous collaboration. Excerpts of the conversation are presented below.