In 1985, scientist, Katalin Karikó left her native Hungary for the United States with her husband and two-year old daughter. The University of Szeged, where she had earned her degree and was working as a postdoctorate fellow, had run out of funding. So the family — who had to sew cash into their daughter’s stuffed bear because the Hungarian government only allowed them to take $100 out of the country — made their way to America where Karikó got a job at Temple University.
Katalin Karikó’s story is one of unbridled focus and passion, which is lucky for us. And that’s because she pioneered research on using mRNA to program cells to make proteins — the exact technology that went into making the Moderna and Pfitzer vaccines that have been the most important weapons to defeat COVID-19 in the United States so far.
Karikó was an isolated researcher in mRNA when no others were. As a lone wolf, she had difficulty getting grants for her work — she even was demoted from her research at the University of Pennsylvania, and only secured her work in mRNA there through the efforts of a couple colleagues who saw promise in her studies and campaigned for her. Furthermore, her experiments often failed. But, as David Langer, a senior professor who supported Karikó, stated: “There’s a tendency when scientists are looking at data to try to validate their own idea . . . The best scientists try to prove themselves wrong. Kate’s genius was a willingness to accept failure and keep trying . . .”.
And eventually, Dr. Karikó succeeded. She figured out not only how to create mRNA that would tell cells how to create proteins, but also how to manipulate that mRNA so that the body’s immune system would accept the mRNA instead of rejecting it as a foreign substance.
Today Katalin Karikó is the senior vice president of BioNTech, producer of the Pfitzer COVID-19 vaccine. The mRNA technology she helped discover is leading the way for promising new vaccines, including a possible vaccine in the fight against H.I.V..
