Dr. Katalin Karik's Hope in Messenger RNA Helped the World Recover from COVID-19

Dr. Katalin Karikó’s Hope in Messenger RNA Helped the World Recover from COVID-19
9/14/2023 by Micah Woods and Carol Stabile
Millions of people owe their health—if not their lives—to Dr. Katalin Karikó’s perseverance.



“Science is 99 percent challenge,” said Katalin Karikó. “You are doing things you have never done, or nobody has ever done. You don’t even know if it is possible.” (Arne Dedert via Getty Images)

Updated Oct. 2 at 8:15 a.m. PT to reflect Karikó’s Nobel prize win.

The Rosenstiel Award. The Grande Medaille Award. The Great Immigrant, Great American Award. The Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize. The Dawson Award. The inaugural Bayh-Dole Coalition American Innovator Award—which recognizes those who have turned cutting-edge, early-stage research into products that benefit people and the environment. And now, the 2023 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. Dozens of accolades line the shelves behind biochemist Katalin Karikó’s desk—all received since her 2021 discovery of the messenger RNA (mRNA) technology that led to the development of COVID-19 vaccines. But what Karikó most wants to share on a late summer day is the recently published children’s book based on her life: Never Give Up: Dr. Kati Karikó and the Race for the Future of Vaccines. She pulls out the book and turns to an illustration of her running as her then-young daughter Susan bikes beside her. Pointing to the picture on the page, Karikó recalls a moment as she trained for a marathon when Susan told her, “Mom, you can do it! You can.”
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“When I am knocked down, I know how to pick myself up,” the accompanying caption reads.
Never Give Up: Dr. Kati Karikó and the Race for the Future of Vaccines, by Debbie Dadey, illustrated by Juliana Oakley.

The arc of Karikó’s career confirms her innate resolve. For nearly 50 years, she worked in relative obscurity. She returned to her lab each day, she will tell you, not because she sought a place in history, but because she was driven by her conviction in mRNA’s therapeutic potential, her unwavering confidence in the scientific method’s truth-revealing capacity, and her joy for scientific discovery that animates her every word and gesture. It’s the science Karikó wants to focus on, not her genius, the history books, or the accolades. Pressed to talk about the obstacles she has overcome, she deftly redirects attention away from herself and the crowded shelves of awards behind her desk to make two points: “You have to understand, it was not always this way” and “My husband built these shelves for me.”



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For Karikó, her ability to keep trying and failing in her decades-long quest for success has been possible because of the relationships and support systems that sustained her. Her parents helped her develop the determination and persistence that has allowed her to flourish. As a young mother in Hungary, she enjoyed the support of state-subsidized childcare—the lack of which she says is a key obstacle to the success of women scientists in the United States. As a young scientist, Katalin Karikó had a partner who supported her career throughout its many ups and downs, believing in her so that she could continue her mRNA research. Her partner Béla and daughter Susan––a two-time Olympic gold medalist in rowing—supported her through long hours at the lab and reminded her of the value of focusing as fully on her family as she did on her research. Karikó taught her daughter, “Hard work is a part of life, and if you embrace it, there will be a reward.”
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Karikó’s perseverance helped lay the groundwork for the rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech, arguably the most important scientific contribution of this century. She proved everybody wrong, but instead of seeking revenge on the people who made her life miserable or holding grudges against those who doubted her, she chooses to thank them: “Without them, I wouldn’t be so resilient!” In a world so focused on divisiveness and animosity, Karikó believes that her forthcoming book, Breaking Through: My Life in Science, won’t be a best seller because it emphasizes the importance of building and maintaining “good relations,” rather than burning bridges. That’s how Karikó lives her life: Rather than emphasizing her many triumphs, she leads with grace, respect and gratitude for the role that others have played in her successes.

https://msmagazine.com/2023/09/14/katalin-kariko-covid-19-mrna-vaccine-women-science/