Four from Penn elected to the National Academy of Sciences

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Four faculty from the University of Pennsylvania have been elected to the United States National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The new honorees are Mark Devlin of the School of Arts & Sciences and Katalin Karikó, Virginia Lee, and E. John Wherry III of the Perelman School of Medicine.

The scholars are among 120 new members along with 30 international members selected by their peers this year. Recognized for “distinguished and continuing achievements in original research,” this new class brings the total number of active members to 2,662 and international members to 556.

Devlin, the Reese W. Flower Professor of Astronomy and Astrophysics, specializes in experimental cosmology. His work in the millimeter and sub-millimeter spectral bands is geared toward the study of the evolution of structure in the universe. He has led a number of ground-based and high-altitude balloon experiments including the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, the Balloon-Borne Large Aperture Telescope, and more recently he was appointed co-director of the Simons Observatory, supported by National Science Foundation (NSF). His pioneering research has earned him an NSF Early Career Development Award and a Sloan Foundation Fellowship. His work has been published in the Astronomical Journal, the Astrophysical Journal and IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science.

Karikó is an adjunct professor of neurosurgery renowned for her groundbreaking work in mRNA technology, which laid the foundation for the COVID-19 vaccines. She was awarded the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine alongside Drew Weissman for discoveries that enable the use of modified mRNA in Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. At Penn Medicine, Karikó helped develop a method to modify mRNA and package it in lipid nanoparticles, making it safe and effective for triggering immune responses. Karikó also holds 14 U.S. patents and is a professor at the University of Szeged in Hungary. Her contributions to science have been recognized with the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, Princess of Asturias Award, Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award, and Vilcek Prize for Excellence in Biotechnology.

Lee is the John H. Ware 3rd Professor in Alzheimer’s Research in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and director of the Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research. She has been awarded numerous academic honors, notably the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences for the discovery of the genetic origins of three different proteins associated with Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and related neurodegenerative disorders, describing tau, alpha-synuclein, and TDP-43 as critical proteins and further clarified the role they play in each disease. Lee has also received the Sheila Essey Award for ALS Research from the ALS Association and the American Academy of Neurology, the Life Time Achievement Award in Alzheimer’s Disease Research from the Alzheimer’s Association, the Helis Foundation Award for Parkinson’s and Neurodegenerative Disease Research, the Robert A. Pritzker Award for Leadership in Parkinson’s Disease Research from the Michael J. Fox Foundation, J. Allyn Taylor International Prize in Medicine, and the John Scott Award from the Board of Directors of City Trusts.

Wherry, the Richard and Barbara Schiffrin President’s Distinguished Professor and chair of Systems Pharmacology and Translational Therapeutics, is a pioneer in the field of T cell exhaustion, the mechanisms by which T cell responses are attenuated during chronic infections and cancer. These exhausted T cells also have an emerging role in autoimmunity. He helped identify the role of the “checkpoint” molecule PD-1 and others for reinvigoration of exhausted T cells in cancer. His work has defined the underlying molecular and epigenetic mechanisms of exhausted T cells, and his laboratory has recently focused on applying systems immunology approaches to define immune health patients across a spectrum of diseases. In recent years, his laboratory established a new Immune Health Project to interrogate and use immune features to identify novel treatment opportunities.

The complete list of new NAS members is available on the Academy’s website.