Thread by @bopinion

Historically, vaccine development has been a male-dominated field.

But today, the science — which is showing spectacular results — is led by women trib.al/Hc6jnXY

Women played a major role in developing the science behind Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech’s mRNA vaccines.

These vaccines teach cells how to make a protein that triggers an immune system response trib.al/Hc6jnXY

Such vaccines are:

⏲️Quicker to develop
🩹Safer to use
💉Easier to manufacture at scale

It’ll probably be adapted to treat other viruses, and even things like skin disorders trib.al/Hc6jnXY

The core work behind the mRNA approach comes from Katalin Kariko, a Hungarian-born émigré who came to the U.S. to research RNA.

After problems raising research money and a bout of cancer, she ended up working with Drew Weissman and made a breakthrough trib.al/Hc6jnXY

Kariko ended up working with BioNTech — a German start-up founded by husband-and-wife team Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci.

You can read more about them here: trib.al/ljG8wKK

Then there is the vaccine from Novavax. Results are not yet published, but early word is that they are very promising.

This vaccine uses an unusual moth cell system to crank out proteins in a highly innovative manner trib.al/Hc6jnXY

Novavax's team is led by Nita Patel, an immigrant from Gujarat, India.

Her vaccine team is identified as “all-female" trib.al/Hc6jnXY

Women and immigrants have been prominent at crucial points:

➡️Lisa A. Jackson led phase one of Moderna’s trial
➡️Noubar Afeyan, Moderna’s co-founder and chairman, was born in Lebanon and moved to Canada, then the U.S. trib.al/Hc6jnXY

The swift development of all these vaccines could end up being the biggest scientific advance in decades – and it’s been driven by people who, in another era, never would have had a chance trib.al/Hc6jnXY

In business, academia and other fields of science, women do not have roles nearly as prominent as they do right now in vaccine development.

Given their contribution to vaccines just this year, think what kind of impact they could have in other areas trib.al/Hc6jnXY

The story of vaccines in the 21st century shows two things:

1⃣Society could be better about allocating talent, and reap big gains across a broad variety of areas
2⃣It’s possible to remedy talent misallocations if we are willing to take the necessary steps trib.al/Hc6jnXY