Derrick Rossi

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Derrick Rossi, 2008

Derrick J. Rossi (born 5 February 1966),[1] is a Canadian stem cell biologist and entrepreneur. He is a co-founder of the biotechnology company Moderna.

Early life and education[]

Rossi was born in Toronto as the youngest of five children of a Maltese immigrant family.[2] His father Fred worked in auto body shops for 50 years[3] and his mother Agnes co-owned a Maltese bakery.[2]

Rossi attended the Dr. Norman Bethune High School in Scarborough where he early discovered his passion for molecular biology.[2] He then did his undergraduate and master's degrees in molecular genetics at the University of Toronto.[4] He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Helsinki in 2003 and held a post-doc position from 2003 to 2007 at Stanford University in Irving Weissman’s lab.[5]

Career[]

Rossi was appointed Associate Professor at the Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology Department at Harvard Medical School and Harvard University.[when?][6] At the same time he was a principal faculty member of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute and an investigator at the Immune Disease Institute (IDI),[7] as well as in the Program in Cellular and Molecular Medicine at the Children’s Hospital Boston.[8]

Moderna was founded in 2010, based on discovery that pluripotent stem cells can be transformed and reprogrammed.[9][10] Time magazine cited this pluripotent discovery as one of the top ten medical breakthroughs of the year.[11] He was also named as one of "People Who Mattered" for Time in 2010.[12] He was cited because the discovery "involved the invention of a safer method for creating pluripotent stem cells... a new method (which) could help move stem cell–based treatments for diseases such as diabetes and Parkinson’s more quickly from the lab to the clinic."[11] Rossi was selected one of the 100 Most Influential People in 2011 by Time.[13][14]

In 2013 Rossi, Chien and their team reported that they "were able to improve heart function in mice and enhance their long-term survival with a "redirection of their [stem cell] differentiation toward cardiovascular cell types" in a significant step towards for Moderna.[15][16] In the same year and on the strength of the same paper Moderna was able to partner with AstraZeneca in exchange for $240 million "in upfront cash (plus much more in potential milestone payments)", and then received from other investors $110 million.[15]

In 2014 Rossi retired from his functions at the board and as a scientific advisor at Moderna.[2]

In 2015 Rossi was scientific co-founder of Intellia Therapeutics, which uses CRISPR gene editing for developing new drugs for treating genetic diseases. In 2016 Rossi co-founded focussing on hematopoietic stem cell transplantation in order to reset the patient’s immune system in case of autoimmune diseases, blood cancers and genetic diseases. Rossi was involved in the foundation of , which develops new medication for treating cancerous stem cells.[when?][6][4][17]

In 2018 Rossi retired from all of his Harvard positions in order to focus on his activities as an entrepreneur.[4][2] Rossi currently serves as a board member of the .[6] Rossi is now the CEO of Convelo Therapeutics.[18]

Scientific contributions[]

Rossi develops and promotes new therapies using biotechnological methods thus contributing to novel approaches in regenerative medicine.[6] His research focussed on different aspects of stem cell biology.[4] In order to avoid ethical issues related to the use and exploitation of human stem cells, Rossi based his developments on the results of Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman on mRNA. He succeeded in finding investors for his plans to transfer these findings into new medications and vaccinations by founding Moderna.[19]

Rossi is on record as writing of his synthetic modified mRNA: "because our technology is RNA based, it completely eliminates the risk of and insertional mutagenesis inherent to all DNA-based methodologies."[20] The abstract from this paper which earned him recognition of Time reads in part: "Here we describe a simple, nonintegrating strategy for reprogramming cell fate based on administration of modified to overcome innate antiviral responses (in Murine embryos and human epidermis and human ESC-derived and MRC-5 fetal lung fibroblasts, human fetal skin fibroblasts, neonatal foreskin fibroblasts, and fibroblast-like cells cultured from a primary skin biopsy taken from an adult cystic fibrosis patient). We show that this approach can reprogram multiple human cell types to pluripotency with efficiencies that greatly surpass established protocols (for or cardiomyocyte targets). We further show that the same technology can be used to efficiently direct the differentiation of RNA-induced pluripotent stem cells (RiPSCs) into terminally differentiated myogenic cells. This technology represents a safe, efficient strategy for somatic cell reprogramming and directing cell fate that has broad applicability for basic research, disease modeling, and regenerative medicine."[20]

In his 2010 paper, Rossi described his preference for "complexing the RNA with a cationic vehicle to facilitate uptake by endocytosis" instead of electroporation because "this would allow for repeated transfection to sustain ectopic protein expression over the days to weeks required for cellular reprogramming." Rossi and his team "treated synthesized RNA with a phosphatase" to overcome the interferon resistance pathway, and substituted "5-methylcytidine (5mC) for cytidine" and "pseudouridine for uridine". The team hit upon a "modified ribonucleotides and phosphatase treatment" (henceforth "mod-RNAs") and masked the mod-RNA past the interferon barrier through use of the vaccinia virus , which served as inhibitor, but still the kinetics dictated a daily transfection treatment regime. Valproic acid, a histone deacetylase inhibitor, was used because it had been reported to increase reprogramming efficiency.[20]

In 2021 he was awarded the Princess of Asturias Award in the category "Scientific Research".[21]

Selected papers[]

  • Rossi, Derrick J.; Bryder, David; Seita, Jun; Nussenzweig, Andre; Hoeijmakers, Jan; Weissman, Irving L. (2007). "Deficiencies in DNA damage repair limit the function of haematopoietic stem cells with age". Nature. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. 447 (7145): 725–729. doi:10.1038/nature05862. ISSN 0028-0836.
  • Warren, Luigi; Manos, Philip D.; Ahfeldt, Tim; Loh, Yuin-Han; Li, Hu; Lau, Frank; Ebina, Wataru; Mandal, Pankaj K.; Smith, Zachary D.; Meissner, Alexander; Daley, George Q.; Brack, Andrew S.; Collins, James J.; Cowan, Chad; Schlaeger, Thorsten M.; Rossi, Derrick J. (2010). "Highly Efficient Reprogramming to Pluripotency and Directed Differentiation of Human Cells with Synthetic Modified mRNA". Cell Stem Cell. Elsevier BV. 7 (5): 618–630. doi:10.1016/j.stem.2010.08.012. ISSN 1934-5909.
  • Gore, Athurva; Li, Zhe; Fung, Ho-Lim; Young, Jessica E.; Agarwal, Suneet; Antosiewicz-Bourget, Jessica; Canto, Isabel; Giorgetti, Alessandra; Israel, Mason A.; Kiskinis, Evangelos; Lee, Je-Hyuk; Loh, Yuin-Han; Manos, Philip D.; Montserrat, Nuria; Panopoulos, Athanasia D.; Ruiz, Sergio; Wilbert, Melissa L.; Yu, Junying; Kirkness, Ewen F.; Belmonte, Juan Carlos Izpisua; Rossi, Derrick J.; Thomson, James A.; Eggan, Kevin; Daley, George Q.; Goldstein, Lawrence S. B.; Zhang, Kun (2011). "Somatic coding mutations in human induced pluripotent stem cells". Nature. Springer Science and Business Media LLC. 471 (7336): 63–67. doi:10.1038/nature09805. ISSN 0028-0836.

Family life[]

Rossi is married to Finnish biologist Nina Korsisaari and father of three daughters.[2][22]

References[]

  1. ^ American Men & Women of Science (2015). 33rd Edition. Cengage Learning: Detroit.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Joe O'Connor (28 May 2020). "Meet the Canadian hockey dad behind COVID-19 vaccine developer Moderna". nationalpost.com. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  3. ^ "How Dad Made a Difference". The Orlando Sentinel. 16 June 2011. p. D1. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  4. ^ a b c d Rahul Kalvapalle (22 February 2021). "From the lab to saving lives: Moderna co-founder Derrick Rossi on becoming a serial entrepreneur". utoronto.ca. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  5. ^ "About the researcher". harvard.edu. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  6. ^ a b c d "Derrick Rossi, PhD". NYSCF. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  7. ^ "Derrick J Rossi's scientific contributionswhile affiliated with Harvard University (Cambridge, United States) and other places". Research Gate. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  8. ^ "Derrick J. Rossi, Ph.D." VOR Biopharma. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  9. ^ Kutz, Erin (4 October 2010). "ModeRNA, Stealth Startup Backed By Flagship, Unveils New Way to Make Stem Cells". Xconomy, Inc.
  10. ^ Lawrence Goodman (10 February 2021). "Rosenstiel Award winners celebrated for life-saving scientific breakthroughs". brandeis.edu. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  11. ^ a b "Children's researcher honored by TIME Magazine". Thriving. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  12. ^ "Person of the Year 2010". Time. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  13. ^ "Derrick J. Rossi". Harvard. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  14. ^ Park, Alice. "The 2011 Time 100". Time. Retrieved 26 February 2018.
  15. ^ a b Timmerman, Luke (20 November 2013). "Moderna Vacuums Up Another $110M to Make Messenger RNA Drugs". Xconomy, Inc.
  16. ^ Zangi, Lior; Lui, Kathy O.; von Gise, Alexander; Ma, Qing; Ebina, Wataru; Ptaszek, Leon M.; Später, Daniela; Xu, Huansheng; Tabebordbar, Mohammadsharif; Gorbatov, Rostic; Sena, Brena; Nahrendorf, Matthias; Briscoe, David M.; Li, Ronald A.; Wagers, Amy J.; Rossi, Derrick J.; Pu, William T.; Chien, Kenneth R. (2013). "Modified mRNA directs the fate of heart progenitor cells and induces vascular regeneration after myocardial infarction". Nature Biotechnology. 31 (10): 898–907. doi:10.1038/nbt.2682. PMC 4058317. PMID 24013197.
  17. ^ Servick, Kelly (1 February 2017). "This mysterious $2 billion biotech is revealing the secrets behind its new drugs and vaccines". Science. Retrieved 9 August 2018.
  18. ^ "The Science of Startups: Drs. Derrick Rossi and Paul Tesar Discuss How Their Biotechs Are Bringing Stem Cell Research to Patients". Retrieved Dec 10, 2020.
  19. ^ Damian Garde, Jonathan Saltzman (10 November 2020). "The story of mRNA: How a once-dismissed idea became a leading technology in the Covid vaccine race". statnews.com. Retrieved 6 March 2021.
  20. ^ a b c Warren, Luigi; Manos, Philip D.; Ahfeldt, Tim; Loh, Yuin-Han; Li, Hu; Lau, Frank; Ebina, Wataru; Mandal, Pankaj K.; Smith, Zachary D.; Meissner, Alexander; Daley, George Q.; Brack, Andrew S.; Collins, James J.; Cowan, Chad; Schlaeger, Thorsten M.; Rossi, Derrick J. (2010). "Highly Efficient Reprogramming to Pluripotency and Directed Differentiation of Human Cells with Synthetic Modified mRNA". Cell Stem Cell. 7 (5): 618–630. doi:10.1016/j.stem.2010.08.012. PMC 3656821. PMID 20888316.
  21. ^ IT, Developed with webControl CMS by Intermark. "Katalin Karikó, Drew Weissman, Philip Felgner, Uğur Şahin, Özlem Türeci, Derrick Rossi and Sarah Gilbert - Laureates - Princess of Asturias Awards". The Princess of Asturias Foundation. Retrieved 13 December 2021.
  22. ^ Courtney Shea (17 February 2020). ""It's likely we'll see another pandemic in the next 20 years": The Toronto scientist who invented the Covid vaccine technology says we need to prepare for the next virus". torontolife.com. Retrieved 6 March 2021.

External links[]

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