▎ WuXi AppTec content team editor
Recently, the industry media STAT released the 2022 STATUS list, listing outstanding opinion leaders and leaders in the field of biological sciences. The people on the list were selected by a team of STAT editors and an external panel of experts from hundreds of candidates, and they all have impressive stories, whether they are pioneers who brought about major changes or unsung heroes who were previously unknown.
The STATUS list lists 46 outstanding individuals, corresponding to 46 chromosomes of the human body. Today, WuXi AppTec's content team will share with readers the industry's top performers by clicking "Read more" at the end of the article to view the original text of the list.
Noubar Afeyan is the founder and CEO of Flagship Pioneering
Image source: Flagship Pioneering official website
Mr. Afeyan founded Flagship in 2000 to establish it as one of the world's leading life sciences venture capital firms. Flagship has made numerous successful investments in recent years, including Rubius Therapeutics, which creates novel cell therapies by bioengineering red blood cells. One of Flagship's most notable successes was Modelna, which worked to develop mRNA vaccines and therapies, of which Mr. Afeyan is co-founder and chairman of the board. In June 2021, Flagship raised $2.2 billion in its latest funding round.
Bill John Baker, Executive Chairman of Cherokee Nation Business
Image source: Cherokee National Enterprises official website
To address the shortage of physicians in rural Oklahoma, Mr. Baker helped establish the region's first Indian tribal-affiliated medical school. In partnership with Oklahoma State University, the Osteopathic School welcomed its first students in the fall of 2021. Previously, Baker served as the chief chief of the Cherokee nation, where he worked to improve health care in the Indian Protected Area.
Stéphane Bancel, CEO of Moderna
Image credit: Brenda Bancel, GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons
Mr. Bancel has led Moderna since 2011. The company has been working on developing mRNA-based drugs to treat a wide range of disease types, from cancer to heart disease. The company's COVID-19 vaccine Spikevax, developed in collaboration with a team at the National Institutes of Health led by Dr. Kizzmekia Corbett, became its first product to market.
Mr. Bancel is confident in the future of mRNA technology, which tells cells how to build proteins or produce protein fragments that can stimulate the body to make antibodies. He said the success of the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the risk of developing mRNA technology and provided Moderna with the opportunity to apply it to treat lung infections and other threats.
Cori Bargmann, Head of Science at the Chen-Zuckerberg Initiative; Professor of Neurobiology at Rockefeller University
Image credit: Rockefeller University website
Professor Bargmann's research on nematode neural circuits and behavior has brought her numerous awards. But her work on the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) science project could make her one of the world's most influential scientists. The project was launched 5 years ago with a $3 billion grant to support "science and technology that will make it possible to cure, prevent or manage all diseases by the end of the 21st century." Last December, CZI pledged another $3.4 billion in funding. Among the many projects funded is a new Institute for Biomedical Imaging and a research center dedicated to the study of nature and artificial intelligence.
Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer
Image source: Pfizer
Dr. Bourla served as CEO of Pfizer in January 2019, shortly after taking office, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. Like everyone else, he has stepped up his response to the crisis. The COVID-19 mRNA vaccine jointly developed by Pfizer and BioNTech became the first COVID-19 vaccine to be authorized by the US FDA in late 2020. In December 2021, Pfizer's oral antiviral drug Paxlovid was authorized by the U.S. FDA. The company has signed agreements to allow the drug to be produced and marketed in 95 countries. As long as the World Health Organization lists COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC), Pfizer waives royalties in these countries. And the company completely waived royalties in low-income countries. The company hopes to produce a vaccine against the Omicron covid-19 variant later in 2022.
Sue Desmond-Hellmann, former CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
图片来源：The White House, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
As CEO of the Gates Foundation, Dr. Desmond-Hellmann helped vaccine research scientist Penny Heaton launch the nonprofit Gates Institute for Medical Research to fight malaria and other major causes of death in low-income countries. After leaving the Gates Foundation, she became a member of Pfizer's board of directors and served throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2021, she becomes a member of the U.S. President's Council of Science and Technology Advisers.
Kenneth Frazier, former CEO of Merck
Image source: MERCK official website
Mr. Frazier reinvigorated the pharmaceutical company during his tenure at Ms. Merck. He remains Merck's Executive Chairman. After stepping down as CEO, he served as chairman of the health care initiative of venture capital firm General Catalyst. "We will use our networks, resources, talent infrastructure and convening capacity to address health equity issues." He said in October last year. Mornaupiravir, developed by Merck, was one of the first oral anti-coronavirus drugs. Merck granted a royalty-free license to a UN-backed patent pool, meaning low-income countries may have better access to the drug.
Yvonne Greenstreet, CEO of Alnylam Pharmaceuticals
Image source: Alnylam official website
Ms Greenstreet took over as retired Dr. John Maraganore this year as CEO of Alnylam. Alnylam is committed to using RNAi technology to inhibit the expression of disease-related genes. So far, all of the company's approved drugs have been used to treat rare diseases. As Alnylam's chief operating officer and later president, Dr. Greenstreet oversaw much of the work.
Scientists predicted decades ago that RNAi had the potential to treat common diseases, and if she could show that Alnylam's drugs would work against more common conditions, that potential would finally have a chance to become a reality. A drug called zilebesiran to treat high blood pressure completed a Phase 1 safety trial in 2021 and may be the first to achieve this goal.