Hungarian Scientist’s mRNA research obsession once cost her a job at an American University, now it’s key to the Covid-19 vaccine

The Times of Israel ^ | 12/21/2020 | Issam Ahmed

[SeekAndFind]

Hungarian-born scientist Katalin Kariko’s obsession with researching a substance called mRNA to fight disease once cost her a faculty position at a prestigious US university, which dismissed the idea as a dead end.

Now, her pioneering work — which paved the way for the Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines — could be what saves the world from a 100-year pandemic. “This is just kind of unbelievable,” she told AFP in a video call from her home in Philadelphia, adding she was unused to the attention after toiling for years in obscurity.

It shows why “it’s important science should be supported on many levels.”

Kariko, 65, spent much of the 1990s writing grant applications to fund her investigations into “messenger ribonucleic acid” — genetic molecules that tell cells what proteins to make, essential to keeping our bodies alive and healthy.

She believed mRNA held the key to treating diseases where having more of the right kind of protein can help — like repairing the brain after a stroke.

But the University of Pennsylvania, where Kariko was on track for a professorship, decided to pull the plug after the grant rejections piled up.

“I was up for promotion, and then they just demoted me and expected that I would walk out the door,” she said.

Kariko didn’t yet have a green card and needed a job to renew her visa. She also knew she wouldn’t be able to put her daughter through college without the hefty staff discount.

She decided to persist as a lower-rung researcher, scraping by on a meager salary.

It was a low point in her life and career, but “I just thought…you know, the (lab) bench is here, I just have to do better experiments,” she said.

The experience shaped her philosophy for dealing with adversity in life.

[SeekAndFind]

KATALIN KARIKO

All did not end badly though.... Kariko is now a senior vice president at Pfizer's German partner BioNTech.

Her daughter, Susan Francia also went to the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned a Master’s degree, and won gold medals with the US Olympic rowing team in 2008 and 2012.

Her innovations were key to the Covid-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer now being used in the USA and eventually, worldwide.

Now, should everything go well with the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, it is not hard to imagine the Nobel Prize committee rewarding Kariko and fellow mRNA researchers.

[Red Badger]

She should get the Nobel Prize for Medicine...............

[SeekAndFind]

RE: She should get the Nobel Prize for Medicine...............

Honestly, it’s too early to tell. Wait a year or two.

[Cold Heart]

Thanks

[Skywise]

Yeah - this is the first time that mRNA treatment had made it into production.

It’s not a “vaccine” - The RNA hooks into your cells to (temporarily, supposedly) make your cells generate proteins that look like COVID. After a few cycles the mRNA in the cells breaks down and the cells go back to their usual protein production... in theory.

Basically anyone taking this is a guinea-pig

[PGR88]

But the University of Pennsylvania, where Kariko was on track for a professorship, decided to pull the plug after the grant rejections piled up.

I know quite a few people working at bio-medical research labs. When you reach the top, time is spent schmoozing and on academic bureaucracy internal politics - and raising money to fund labs and departments.

Therefore, I’m not surprised by her experience - if you don’t can’t bring in the cash and are not politically popular in the organization - you will be gone.

[BigEdLB]

I agree. Nobel prize in medicine.

[lee martell]

Nevertheless, she persisted.

This scientist had to give up her preferred research because there was little financial support through grants.
She was practical, and did not walk away from the University completely. Now, her time has come. Her research is urgently needed.

[libh8er]

It’s not a “vaccine” - The RNA hooks into your cells to (temporarily, supposedly) make your cells generate proteins that look like COVID.

What is the difference ? You are exposing the immune system to the same antigen - whether extracted from an actual virus, or synthesized in situ, and the immune system reacts to it by generating antibodies. It is absolutely a vaccine.

[libh8er]

Great story. This is how you succeed - by perseverance and hard work. Not by crying victim.

[John Milner]

Sounds almost like, “The Science is settled.” She was looking at something that nobody else thought had the practical value she foresaw. So she got pushed aside.

Seems like this happens a lot in science.

You’d think people would be more open to the possibility of a variation to what is accepted as ‘gospel’ in science fields instead of forcing differing opinions to “shut the F up!”

[Skywise]

It’s not THE antigen.

It’s not a dead virus or a weakened live virus.

It’s a protein with a chemical signature that looks like the virus to the immune system (maybe).

The difference is 2 parts.

1st - it’s a decoy which may or may not appear the same to your immune system and it’s also partly a protein that your body produces - so your immune system might get confused and attack you... we call that an allergic reaction... you might have heard of some concern about that.

2nd and more concerning is that the mRNA injects itself into your cells and disrupts their normal function to produce the decoys. The theory is that you have millions of cells so this is a short term disruption and the mRNA eventually dies off so the cells return to normal... but that’s all purely theoretical. And, of course, the companies are shielded from liability.