Katalin Kariko and Drew Weissman, the two scientists behind mRNA Covid vaccines, won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Medicine. The biggest contribution to this technology, which greatly changed the course of the pandemic and saved the lives of millions of people, came from Hungarian biochemist Katalin Kariko, who devoted her life to this dream.
Kariko and Weissman began studying in vitro synthetic mRNA technology in the early 1990s when they worked together at the University of Pennsylvania. The duo's pivotal paper in 2005 explained that they were able to successfully deliver the modified mRNA into the body and trigger an immune response that prepares the immune system against future viral infections. Over the years, their research with mRNA vaccines has solved major problems with the technique, such as the body's inflammatory response, which involves the production of harmful cytokines. Weissman explained that they constantly encountered technical obstacles for 25 years: “We couldn't get funding, Kati was constantly discouraged and pushed aside. This research was very difficult to do, but early on we saw the potential and how important RNA could be. And that kept us going. “We never gave up.”
They stuffed the teddy bear with money and went to the USA
As a matter of fact, Kariko started working on mRNA in 1989. At that time, I asked Kariko, "Can we deal with this?" Those who laugh now describe this technology, which teaches the immune system to fight viruses, as "the software of life" or "an operating system for medicine." Now the first goal is to produce an effective vaccine against flu, which is responsible for the deaths of 300 thousand people a year. The next dream is to develop vaccines against cancer using mRNA technology. Weissman and Kariko think that mRNA could be a cure for autoimmune diseases, cancers, food and environmental allergies, bacterial diseases, and insect-borne diseases.
Katalin "Kati" Karikó (born 17 January 1955) is a Hungarian-American biochemist who specializes in ribonucleic acid (RNA)-mediated mechanisms, particularly in vitro-transcribed messenger RNA (mRNA) for protein replacement therapy. Karikó laid the scientific groundwork for mRNA vaccines, overcoming major obstacles and skepticism in the scientific community. Karikó received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023 for her work, along with American immunologist Drew Weissman.
Katalin Kariko, who was born in Szolnok, Hungary, in 1955, the daughter of a Hungarian butcher, wanted to be a scientist since her childhood. She completed her doctorate at the University of Szeged. She started working at the school's Biological Research Center. However, when her door was locked due to budget problems, she went to the USA with her husband and 2-year-old daughter in 1985. At that time, the Hungarian government did not allow more than $100 to be taken abroad, so they stuffed the $1,246 they saved into their daughter Susan's teddy bear (she is now an Olympic medalist rower). Kariko thought mRNA could be used as a tool to instruct cells to produce their own medicine. She tried to prove this idea by going from laboratory to laboratory for years. She even turned this idea into an obsession. However, there was no one around her who believed in this idea. Her budget was very limited. Her thoughts were considered very "unreal".
At the University of Pennsylvania in 1989, Dr. They started working on mRNA together with Elliot Barnathan. After a period where everyone mocked their efforts, one day their luck turned. Their theory was correct. However, her articles explaining this received rejection responses from many scientific publications. When it was finally published in the journal "Immunology", it did not attract anyone's attention. Barnathan also evaluated the offer from the private sector and left the university. After the article, Kariko started working with Dr. Drew Weissman, and this duo claimed that thanks to mRNA technology, vaccines, which take an average of 10 years, could be developed much faster and more effectively. Two biotechnology companies took Kariko's claim seriously. Now humanity owes the development of vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna to her research. Pfizer wrote the codes required for the vaccine in just hours.
When Uğur Şahin and Özlem Türeci founded BioNTech in 2008, they saw mRNA technology as ideal in the field of immunotherapy. Şahin and Türeci were particularly attracted to the possibility of creating personalized vaccines to teach the immune system to eliminate cancer cells. However, the pandemic changed all balances. All plans were shelved.
It licensed the technology developed by Kariko and Weissman, who were ignored for the development of a vaccine against COVID-19. In 2013, the company hired Kariko as vice president to help oversee its mRNA efforts. The University of Pennsylvania, where she previously said she wanted to return to the academic staff, said, "You are not qualified to be an academic."