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SScientists would progress faster in solving the world’s problems if they learned to put their egos aside and collaborate better, according to the lead researcher behind the Pfizer / BioNTech Covid vaccine.
Professor Katalin Karikó, Senior Vice President of RNA Protein Replacement Therapies at BioNTech in Germany, endured decades of skepticism about her work and was demoted and ultimately kicked out of her lab while developing the technology that made it possible the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.
Karikó vaccines have helped grow smuggled genetic material called mRNA in cells so they can produce the coronavirus spike protein and prime the immune system to fight disease. On Thursday, she received a groundbreaking $ 3million (£ 2.2million) award for the life sciences with her colleague Professor Drew Weissman of the University of Pennsylvania.
“If so many people who are in a certain field would get together in a room and forget their names, egos, titles, and just think, they would find so many solutions for so many things, but all these titles and whatever. which annoys, ”Karikó told the Guardian.
“I always thought we care?” In 100 years, no one will know my name. But the titles, the promotions, the older men, the power, it all gets in the way, ”she said. It is not exclusively men who favor power over progress, she concedes, but “they have had more time to practice exercising power.”
During the pandemic, Covid vaccines have saved hundreds of thousands of lives. New mRNA-based therapies currently underway aim to directly produce antibodies against viruses so that protection kicks in immediately rather than taking weeks to build up. Immunity will be of shorter duration than that obtained from a vaccine, but could protect doctors against epidemics of new emerging diseases. Ultimately, she envisions people having mRNA freezers in the home to help treat wounds, burns, and other ailments.
Karikó grew up in Kisújszállás, 150 km (93 miles) east of Budapest. Her family lived in one room with a reed roof, no running water, no refrigerator, and no television. She studied a lot and at 14 she finished third in a national biology competition. She went to college in Hungary, got a post-doctorate, then sold her car on the illegal market, sewn the money into her daughter’s teddy bear, and moved the family to the United States.
His first position was a postdoctoral fellow at Temple University in Philadelphia, earning him $ 17,000 a year to support the family. “I know how to stay on a budget and not spend more than $ 30 a week on food for the family. It was our limit, ”she said. After falling out with her boss, she moved to the University of Pennsylvania.
While mRNA therapies clearly showed promise, enthusiasm for the approach collapsed in the face of multiple failures. A major problem was that mRNAs triggered severe immune responses when smuggled into cells. In 1995 Karikó was diagnosed with cancer and the same week the university gave him an ultimatum: either give up work on mRNA or lose his prestigious post as professor. She opted for demotion – and a substantial pay cut – so she could continue the research. Two years later, she meets Weissman. Together, they discovered how to get mRNA into cells without causing severe immune reactions: the approach has become the basis of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines.