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- Hi , I am Katalin KarikoI grew up in Hungary, daughter of a butcher. I decided I wanted to be a scientist, although I had never met one. I moved to the United States in my 20s, but for decades never found a permanent position, instead clinging to the fringes of academia.
- Now , I am 66 and my colleagues call me Kati. I have emerged as one of the heroes of Covid-19 vaccine development. My work, with my close collaborator, Dr. Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania, laid the foundation for the stunningly successful vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna.
- For my entire career, i have focused on messenger RNA, or mRNA — the genetic script that carries DNA instructions to each cell’s protein-making machinery. I was convinced mRNA could be used to instruct cells to make their own medicines, including vaccines.
- Dr. Kariko’s ideas about mRNA were definitely unorthodox. Increasingly, they also seem to have been prescient.“It’s going to be transforming,” Dr. Fauci said of mRNA research. “It is already transforming for Covid-19, but also for other vaccines. H.I.V. — people in the field are already excited. Influenza, malaria.”
- When Dr. Kariko started, it was early days in the mRNA field. Even the most basic tasks were difficult, if not impossible. How do you make RNA molecules in a lab? How do you get mRNA into cells of the body?
- Me and Dr. Barnathan planned to insert mRNA into cells, inducing them to make new proteins. In one of the first experiments, We hoped to use the strategy to instruct cells to make a protein called the urokinase receptor. If the experiment worked, we would detect the new protein with a radioactive molecule that would be drawn to the receptor.
- “Most people laughed at us,” Dr. Barnathan said.
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