Date Time From lab to saving lives: Moderna co-founder Derrick Rossi on becoming a serial entrepreneur Derrick Rossi, a U of T alumnus who will speak at a U of T Entrepreneurship Week event on March 11, co-founded COVID-19 vaccine-maker Moderna more than a decade ago. He’s since been involved with four other biotech firms (photo courtesy of Derrick Rossi) When stem cell biologist Derrick Rossi co-founded the biotech firm Moderna, he envisioned that its novel solution – using modified messenger RNA molecules to relay genetic code to human cells – would have widespread applications in the realm of genetic disease. “We studied in my undergraduate program and grad school that genes and mutations in genes underlie pretty much all human genetic diseases, which is a large fraction of human diseases,” says Rossi, who earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in molecular genetics at the University of Toronto.