Description

Katalin "Kati" Karikó, born on January 17, 1955, in Szolnok, Hungary, is a Hungarian-American biochemist renowned for her pioneering work in mRNA technology, which played a crucial role in the development of COVID-19 vaccines.

Karikó earned her bachelor's degree in biology and a Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Szeged. She moved to the United States in 1985 and worked at Temple University and the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences before joining the University of Pennsylvania in 1989. Despite numerous challenges, she persisted in her research on RNA-mediated immune activation. In the mid-1990s, she began a key collaboration with immunologist Drew Weissman. Together, they discovered how to modify mRNA to reduce its immunogenicity, laying the foundation for mRNA-based vaccines, including those developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna for COVID-19.

For their groundbreaking work, Karikó and Weissman received numerous accolades, including the Lasker-DeBakey Clinical Medical Research Award in 2021, the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences in 2022, and the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2023.