A Nobel Prize winner called his parents in a heartwarming moment to reveal he won the prestigious award.
Drew Weissman — alongside Hungarian-American Katalin Karikó — won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for helping develop the mRNA vaccines for COVID-19.
In a heartwarming call, the 64-year-old filmed the moment his parents Adele, 90, and Hal, 91, learned their son had taken home the prize.
“I have some news,” he said in a video posted by Penn Medicine to Instagram.
“I won the Nobel Prize.”
Both his parents erupted in joyful, excited cries.
“You’re kidding! Congratulations!” his father said.
“Oh my god, Drew! Oh my god!” his mother yelled.
“Oh, how fabulous! I don’t know what to say, I’m ready to fall on the floor.”
Adele ribbed her son’s pessimism, as he previously told his parents he wasn’t going to win.
“You did it! And so young!” she cheered.
“Congratulations, and you deserved it.”
When Weissman was about five years old, his parents had visited Stockholm — where the prize will be awarded — and visited the Nobel auditorium, according to CBS News.
“Reserve these two seats for us,” they said.
“And they remember that story and would tell us every so often. So it was always on their minds,” Weissman, who originally wanted to be an engineer, said.
In a separate video, also posted to Instagram by Penn Medicine, Weissman noted the Nobel Prize was the “most important award that a scientist can achieve.”
“It’s an incredible honor,” he said.
Weissman and Karikó met by “chance” in the late 1990s and “began investigating mRNA as a potential therapeutic,” according to Penn Medicine. In 2005, the two scientists discovered messenger RNA “could be modified and delivered effectively into the body to activate a protective immune response.”
“Fifteen years later when the pandemic struck, this breakthrough proved invaluable by allowing for the rapid development of mRNA COVID vaccines,” the Instagram post read.