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IDuring the Covid-19 pandemic, and thanks to the success of two of the currently available vaccines for SARS-CoV-2, messenger RNA or mRNA has grown from an obscure concept of cell biology understood and mentioned only by scientists at being a household term.
But the technology behind the mRNA vaccines from Moderna, Pfizer and BioNTech is anything but new. Developed over 40 arduous years, it is the result of an improbable success story. One of the key figures in this achievement was Katalin Karikó, senior vice president of German biotech company BioNTech and assistant associate professor at the University of Pennsylvania.
Speaking at the STAT Breakthrough 2021 Science Summit on Wednesday, Karikó explained how, despite many failures – including demotions, denials of grants, and more. – she was clear in her objective. “I have always looked to the RNA [as a way] to develop therapies, ”she said, and shared details about her journey to BioNTech as well as her unwavering faith in the technology she was developing.
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Around the world for mRNA
Karikó grew up in Hungary, where at 16 she already knew she wanted to be a scientist, and her dedication to mRNA has taken her across the world. She wanted to go to where the best mRNA science was, whether it meant academia or biotechnology, Japan or Pennsylvania, where she worked at Arbutus Biopharma, previously Tekmira. “I was so determined to go somewhere, to do something” with the RNA, she said. In 1990, she found herself in Philadelphia, studying the mechanisms of mRNA biology at Penn.
By persevering through thick and thin
Although Karikó’s groundbreaking research has earned him recognition and, with it, grants, his trajectory has not been without weaknesses. During the first 40 years of her research career, she received no R01 grants, the main way the National Institutes of Health funds scientists. “There were weak spots, but whenever something went wrong I tried to focus on the things I could change,” she said. Seeing the progress, however gradual, helped her keep going. “Whether we had more protein, better delivery, or any kind of data, it gave us a boost when we got deeper into the issues,” she recalls.
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Karikó compared the trajectory of science to rowing, the sport in which his daughter Susan Francia, won Olympic gold medals on the US team in 2008 and 2012. Because rowers face the direction in which they are heading, “They don’t see the finish line, they don’t see how far it is, they just sort of feel it.” Science is like that sometimes, ”she said.
When biotechnology calls
Slowly, Karikó started to get into biotechnology, first by founding his own company, RNARx, in 2006, then moving on to larger companies. Again, she knew exactly where to go: “I was focusing on companies that already had [mRNA] formulations in humans, because then maybe I could help. She ended up at BioNTech, where she has been since 2013.
Karikó said biotechnology has a lot of advantages over academia. “We have to have a product that is functional and that will heal people. It was so much better than a newspaper, then another newspaper that maybe no one will read. “
A hit in the arm
When Covid-19 hit in early 2020, BioNTech and Karikó shifted into high gear to develop the building blocks for a vaccine based on their mRNA biology. After months of work, Karikó recounted how one Sunday night in Philadelphia – her daughter’s birthday, no less – she received a call saying the vaccine had worked. She wasn’t that surprised. “I was very happy but [it was] kinda expected, ”she said. Seeing not only “the data from clinical trials but also how well this modified RNA worked in other infectious disease vaccines has always been so powerful.”
Then, on December 18, 2020, she obtained the BioNTech vaccine that she helped develop. When she came out, the health workers who were also receiving their vaccines began to applaud her. “They were so happy. I’m not a very emotional person, but I just cried a little.
On his new fame
When asked what she thought of a possible Nobel Prize nomination, Karikó instead focused on the collaborative nature of science and how so many contributions to the mRNA vaccine by others can. be neglected. “Many scientists, just like me, work for years and years and no one knew them. And so, I have to represent them all, ”she said.
But she’s nostalgic for the days leading up to her newfound fame and new workload, she said. “Sometimes I wish I could have this [extra time] back. When I read the title of a very exciting article, I feel like I would never have time to read it, and I want to because that’s what I prefer to do.
The future of mRNA
Karikó sees mRNA, in vaccine or therapeutic form, as a powerful tool to treat everything from viruses and pathogens to autoimmune diseases, she said. Earlier this year, his group published a study in mice showing how an mRNA vaccine could be used to prevent immune system attacks that are common in multiple sclerosis. While this particular vaccine has a long way to go to reach the clinic – around two years, she predicted – she believes her favorite molecule will continue to produce new therapies: “I’m hopeful that more and more more products will come to the market, ”Karikó mentioned
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