Katalin Karikó
She won the 2023 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for her research on messenger RNA that led to the Covid vaccines. Her co-laureate is Professor Drew Weissman.
She grew up in a small town in Hungary, the daughter of a butcher and a bookkeeper. She moved to the United States with her husband and young daughter in the 1980s. She held various research jobs before being hired at the University of Pennsylvania. She later joined an obscure start-up in Germany called BioNTech that was working on medical applications for mRNA. BioNTech eventually collaborated with Pfizer to create a coronavirus vaccine.
She grew up in a small town in Hungary, the daughter of a butcher and a bookkeeper. She moved to the United States with her husband and young daughter in the 1980s. She held various research jobs before being hired at the University of Pennsylvania. She later joined an obscure start-up in Germany called BioNTech that was working on medical applications for mRNA. BioNTech eventually collaborated with Pfizer to create a coronavirus vaccine.